Baseball Fan Day
Fan Day draws crowd to see Cajun baseball
Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@lafayette.gannett.com
February 2, 2003
LAFAYETTE — UL Lafayette’s baseball team couldn’t be confused with an offensive juggernaut last season, hitting only .267 as a team.
On Saturday, when the Ragin’ Cajuns hosted Fan Day activities at M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field, the 2003 squad only managed five hits in losing 3-2 to a Cajun alumni team of current and former professional players.
But, the Cajun coaching staff insisted that the two instances aren’t related.
The lack of hitting probably had more to do with the pitching — and the bats — used during the six-inning game that highlighted activities.
The teams played the exhibition game with wooden bats, and this year’s edition of the squad faced a pitching staff that included Scott Dohmann, Alan Ochsner, Phil Devey, Buddy Yen and Nick Webb.
“Dohmann and Devey are legitimate Triple-A pitchers this year,” said new Cajun assistant coach John Szefc. “We’re not going to face that level of pitching a lot. You’d rather have it tough early.”
The alumni group provided a tough test for the Cajuns, who open their regular season Friday at home against Southwest Texas. But head coach Tony Robichaux made sure that both teams knew Saturday’s game was for fun.
“We told everybody to pull up some,” he said. “We weren’t doing anything vicious today, no stealing, no hit-and-run, no taking out players on double plays. This was an exhibition game, and we wanted to make sure to keep it safe.”
The Cajuns scored single runs in the third and fourth innings of the exhibition, with Jason Wilson reaching base on a fielders’ choice and scoring on Corey Coles’ triple to right-center field in the third. Justin Bourque was hit by a Devey pitch to lead off the fourth and eventually scored on Ryan Core’s single.
Other than that, the alumni pitchers were in control. Dohmann allowed one hit in two innings with four strikeouts, and the other pitchers all threw one inning with Devey and Webb each fanning two.
The Cajuns had two solid innings from righthanded starter Kevin Ardoin, who retired six of the seven batters he faced, but the alumni squad scored one in the third off righthander Jered Salazar and two in the fifth off righthander Kraig Schambough. UL Lafayette did not use any of its lefthanded pitching in Saturday’s outing.
Chase Lambin’s single scored Neil Simoneaux, who led off with a double, in the third inning. Lambin and Danny Massiatte had RBI singles in the fifth when the pros collected four hits.
“You can see why we’ve been successful over the past few years,” Robichaux said of the players who made up the alumni squad. “These guys are responsible for a lot of that, and we’re honored that a lot of them could come back.”
Robichaux also said that the event, which drew over 1,000 people for the morning autograph session and the afternoon game combined, will become an annual part of the Cajun preseason schedule.
“Usually when you have alumni games during the season, these guys are off playing pro ball,” he said. “These guys don’t get to get acknowledged for what they’ve done. We’re glad to see they could come back and help us.”
EXTRA BASES: This year’s squad did win the pregame “home run derby” 3-1, with Phillip Hawke, Kevin Preau and Rhett Buras homering for the 2003 team and Lambin getting the only homer for the pro squad. Five players took part for each team ... All members of the pro team’s starting lineup and all five pitchers were UL Lafayette products except for Brooks Badeaux, a native of Lafayette and a product of Teurlings Catholic who played collegiately at Florida State ... The oldest participant in Saturday’s exhibition was former Cajun outfielder Walter Guillory, who played from 1982-85 and also played in the Oakland A’s organization. Guillory, currently director of the Lafayette Housing Authority, got a fourth-inning single ... Cajuns who played under former coaches Mel Didier (1981-82) and Brad Kelley (1983-84) will hold a reunion Feb. 21-23 when UL Lafayette plays Troy State in a three-game weekend series. Activities will include a Friday social and a Saturday crawfish boil. More information is available from Bo Stuart at (337) 230-3924 or from the UL Lafayette baseball office ... The Cajuns will hold regular practice today at 1:30 p.m., will take Monday off and will work out at 2 p.m. each day this week in final preparations for the weekend series. UL Lafayette hosts Southwest Texas at 6:30 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday.
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