UL - In the midst of a nine-game road trip, Louisiana (6-11) returns home to host the Northwestern State Demons (11-7) for "Turn Back the Clock Night" on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m

Louisiana has lost five of the seven games in the series to the Demons, going 1-3 at "The Tigue".

Tuesday’s game is the first of four meetings between the schools - the most single-season meetings since they met five times in 2006.

In the course of four games last week, the Ragin’ Cajuns tripled their season home run total. Through the first 13 games, Louisiana had managed only three homers. Last week, the Cajuns hit six in four games.

Senior Nolan Gisclair improved his batting average by 74 points after hitting .389 with four homers and 10 RBI last week.

With his victory Saturday, Hunter Moody (25) is now tied for third on the school’s career wins list. Moody is one shy of tying for the school record held by Andy Gros and Scott Dohmann.

LONG GOES 4-FOR-4 IN FAU FINALE. Sophomore shortstop William Long tied a career high with four hits in Sunday’s 9-2 loss at FAU. Long’s four hits marked the second instance in his career, matching his four-hit effort last season at FIU.

WALK THIS WAY. Junior Matt Hicks tied a school record, drawing four walks in Saturday’s win at Florida Atlantic. Ironically, Hicks was the first Cajun since Scott Hawkins drew four walks against Florida Atlantic in 2007.

LOGAN BREAKS OUT OF SLUMP. After recording five hits opening weekend at the UTSA Baseball Classic, Josh Logan struggled at the plate, going 0-for-his next 19 at bats until Tuesday at Louisiana Tech.

Logan was unsuccessful in his first two at bats of the night an infield bunt single in the sixth snapped his recent woes. Logan added a RBI single to right field in the ninth, finishing 2-for-4.

TWO-FOR-TUESDAY. On Tuesday, Louisiana hit two home runs in an 11-2 win at Louisiana Tech, marking the Cajuns’ first multi-homer game of 2008. It was Louisiana’s first multi-HR contest since the NCAA College Station Regional title game against Texas A&M on June 2, 2007.

TWO OUT, NO PROBLEM. Seven of Louisiana’s 11 runs at Louisiana Tech came with two outs on the scoreboard.

The only runs that came with less than two outs were via Nolan Gisclair’s two-run home run in the first and the first Cajuns runs in the fifth and eighth innings.

NORTHWESTERN STATE SCOUTING REPORT. Northwestern State (11-7) enters Tuesday’s midweek affair on a three-game winning streak after sweeping its Southland Conference series opener with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.The Demons, however, have lost four of their last five non-conference games. NSU dropped both games with Tulane in New Orleans last week, while losing two out of three with Jacksonville State.Mike Jaworski leads the Demons with a .364 average, five home runs and 17 RBI. He also leads the team in extra-base hits (11).

NORTHWESTERN STATE SERIES. Louisiana leads the all-time series 69-45, but the Cajuns have lost five of the last seven meetings. The two teams split the series last season with both winning of their home field.

In 2006, the schools met five times with Northwestern State winning four of those meetings. That trend snapped UL’s six-game series win streak during the 2004 and 2005 seasons.

RICE SCOUTING REPORT. The nationally-ranked Rice Owls (12-6) have won their last four games, including three straight against Winthrop. After losing the first two games of the season, Rice won six straight until a three-game losing streak earlier this month.

Diego Seastrunk leads the Owls with a .423 average with two home runs and 15 RBI. Six Owls have 10 or more RBI this season.

RICE SERIES. Rice has won 13 of the 17 all-time meetings in the series, including the last three. Wednesday will be the first meeting since the 2002 Coca-Cola Classic in Houston.

Louisiana’s last win over Rice came on June 4, 1999, in the opening game of the NCAA Super Regional in Houston.Rice hasn’t played in Lafayette in 1993 - the Owls only trip to visit the Cajuns.

UP NEXT - UALR. Following this week’s games against Northwestern State and Rice, Louisiana will head north to Little Rock, Ark., to face the UALR Trojans.

TURN BACK THE CLOCK NIGHT ON TAP FOR MARCH 18.
Following this week’s four-game road trip, Louisiana returns home to host Northwestern State for ‘Turn Back the Clock Night’ on Tuesday, March 18.

MOODY MOVING UP. Senior southpaw Hunter Moody enters Saturday with 25 career victories, tied for third-most in school history.A victory Saturday would move him into a tie for the all-time lead with Andy Gros and Scott Dohmann (26).


RaginCajuns.com

Chris Yandle