Louisiana Baseball Notebook - February 21, 2022
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Louisiana rallied from deficits of 4-3 on Saturday and 3-2 on Sunday to claim the season-opening series against No. 14-ranked and defending Big West champion UC Irvine at M.L. "Tigue" Moore Field at Russo Park
The Ragin' Cajuns scored three times in the bottom of the fifth inning to earn a 7-4 victory on Saturday before scoring three times in the eighth to earn a 5-3 win on Sunday
Carson Roccaforte' one-out single through the right side in the eighth inning off UCI closer Jacob King scored Max Marusak and Tyler Robertson to give Louisiana a 4-3 lead. CJ Willis drove in an insurance run two batters later
Trey LaFleur and Bo Bonds pitched 4.2 innings of hitless relief on Sunday to lead a Louisiana bullpen which produced both victories
Jacob Schultz earned the win in Saturday's game as he tossed 2.0 hitless innings and fanned a pair of batters for the Ragin' Cajuns ... Dylan Theut pitched the final 2.1 innings with four strikeouts to earn his first career save in Saturday's game …
LaFleur, an Ole Miss transfer who played both infield and outfield for the Rebels, made his collegiate pitching debut for Louisiana in the fifth inning for starter Jeff Wilson …
Bonds pitched the final 3.1 innings on Sunday and held the Anteaters hitless while recording five strikeouts ...
Louisiana recorded five home runs during the weekend series with Jonathan Brandon and Carson Roccaforte hitting homers in Friday's opener ...
The Ragin' Cajuns also went 8-for-8 in stolen base attempts as the team's top two hitters in the lineup - Max Marusak and Tyler Robertson - went a combined 6-for-17 from the plate with seven runs scored and seven stolen bases …
Defensively, Louisiana committed one error in 111 chances during the weekend while runners were 0-and-2 in steal attempts against catcher Julian Brock.
KEY PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
CONNOR KIMPLE, LOUISIANA - DH/OF, Sr., Whitefish Bay, Wis. (South Mountain JC)
Kimple hit .500 for the weekend (5-for-10) with three home runs, six RBI, three runs scored and a stolen base in helping the Ragin' Cajuns to a series-win over UC Irvine ... homered in all three games to open the season while producing a slash line of .500/1.400/.583 ... homered for the second consecutive year on Opening Day and became the first Ragin' Cajuns player since Hunter Kasuls in 2019 to hit a home run in three consecutive games.
BO BONDS, LOUISIANA – RHP, So., Live Oak, Fla. (Chipola JC)
Pitched 3.1 innings of hitless relief with five strikeouts to earn the win in his Louisiana debut and lift the Ragin' Cajuns to a series win over No. 14-ranked UC Irvine ... entered the game with two outs in the sixth inning credited with the final 10 outs of the game for Louisiana while facing officially nine batters (UCI runner caught stealing to end the sixth) ... fanned Nathan Church - a third-team All-American in 2021 - to end a 1-2-3 eighth inning.
