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Starting with Tuesday's non-conference game against Northwestern State, UL's baseball team faced a grueling stretch of 15 games in 20 days.
Nolan Gisclair and Matt Broussard got the Ragin' Cajuns off to a great start in Tuesday's 9-2 win before a crowd of 1,717 at M.L. "Tigue" Moore Field.
Gisclair did in at the plate, tying career highs in hits (three), home runs (two) and RBIs (four). After hitting a two-run homer in the second inning, the reigning Sun Belt Newcomer of the Year smashed a solo shot in the third and added an RBI single in the fifth.
"I felt like it was opening day for me because it seems like forever since I've played at home," said Gisclair, who missed five games earlier this year with a left wrist injury. "I just felt like it was a new season. They left some pitches over the middle to me."
<center><p><a href="http://www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080409/SPORTS/804090330/1006" target="_blank">The rest of the story</a>
Joshua Parrott
jparrott@theadvertiser.com
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Broussard got it done on the mound in his second career start, earning his first win as a Cajun. The junior held NSU (17-12) to one run on three hits in seven innings. He walked three and struck out four as the Cajuns (15-15) moved to .500 for the first time since February after winning for the ninth time in their last 12 games.
After giving up an RBI triple to Dylan Libadisos in the third inning, Broussard recovered to retire the final 10 batters he faced.
"He got going as the game deepened and he went up in his pitch count," UL coach Tony Robichaux said of Broussard, a former Breaux Bridge standout. "He got stronger as the game went on. He did a great job after he settled in."
UL hitters rattled NSU starter Ryan Campbell, who took the loss after allowing four runs on five hits in two innings. Led by Gisclair's three hits, the Cajuns pounded out 13 hits. Eight different players collected hits and five drove in at least one run.
"Some nights we're that team that hits a lot of balls hard but right at people," Gisclair said. "Tonight, we were finding the holes. We got a couple balls down the line.
"I was able to hit two out."
Gisclair's two homers to left field help set the tone early. The senior's two-run shot on the first pitch he saw in the second sparked a four-run inning as the Cajuns grabbed a 4-0 lead. William Long's RBI single and Josh Logan's sacrifice fly accounted for UL's other runs in the inning.
In the third, Gisclair did it again, smacking Campbell's 1-2 pitch over the left-field wall for his sixth homer of the year.
Given that run support, Broussard cruised to a strong outing.
"I just came out and tried to throw some strikes," Broussard said. "At the beginning I was getting behind (the hitters), but everybody was picking me up.
"Eventually, the hitting came around."
After NSU cut it to 5-1 on Libadisos' RBI triple in the third, the Cajuns added three runs in the fifth. Gisclair drove in the first run with an RBI single to shallow right field before an error brought home another run. Thad Griffen's sacrifice fly made it 8-1.
Matt Goulas brought in UL's final run with an RBI groundout in the eighth. The Demons scored again in the ninth, but it was not enough to avoid their second loss to the preseason Sun Belt favorite Cajuns this year.
The Cajuns, who moved up to sixth in the conference standings last weekend after taking two of three from Middle Tennessee, look to extend their winning ways at 6:30 tonight against McNeese State in Lake Charles. Senior John Zorich (0-1, 14.40 ERA) is expected to get the start for the Cajuns, who are at home this weekend for a three-game Sun Belt series against first-place UL Monroe.
"We're peaking (right now)," Gisclair said. "Hopefully, this is turning us around. We've played the first half of the season. Now it's time for the second half."
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