Louisiana husks #4 Nebraska, WINS SERIES 2-1

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LINCOLN, Neb. — Louisiana’s baseball team faced tough challenges from nationally-ranked clubs at the beginning of the 2003 season, and the Ragin’ Cajuns weren’t ready.

Now, head coach Tony Robichaux says they are.

“Those early games helped us,” he said. “We struggled and we weren’t playing well, but we learned from those. Now we’re playing a lot better, and we’re more prepared since we’ve seen a lot of good clubs.”

The Cajuns are going to see another one this weekend when they travel to take on the Cornhuskers of Nebraska in a three-game series.

Louisiana (21-25), winners of six in a row and nine of its last 11, will take on the fourth-ranked (Baseball America) Huskers (35-11) in a 6:35 p.m. series opener tonight at Hawks Field at Haymarket Park.

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No. 4 Huskers Host Ragin’ Cajuns

Lincoln -- The fourth-ranked Nebraska baseball team steps outside of conference play this weekend, hosting Louisiana for a three-game series at Hawks Field. The series between the Huskers and Ragin’ Cajuns begins Friday with a 6:35 p.m. start before continuing on Saturday (2:05 p.m.) and Sunday (11:05 a.m.). All three games will be carried on the Pinnacle Sports Network (check local stations for broadcast availability) with Jim Rose and Gary Sharp calling all the action. In addition, live video streaming of the weekend series is available on HuskersNside.com, as the subscription-based service will carry nearly every remaining regular-season contest.

The Huskers, who are in the midst of an eight-game homestand, are on a roll with wins in 12 of their last 14 games, including five wins over nationally ranked teams in that stretch. NU comes into the weekend riding a four-game winning streak after blanking Creighton (8-0) on Tuesday before a 9-2 win over No. 25 Minnesota Wednesday evening.

Louisiana started slowly, going 12-23 through the first 35 games, but comes into the weekend on a hot streak of its down, going 9-2 over the last three weeks including its current six-game winning streak. The Cajuns, who missed qualifying for their third Super Regional in four years by one game in 2002, make their first return to Nebraska since earning a third-place finish at the 2000 College World Series.

While the Huskers (15-6 in league play) and third-place Texas A&M (14-7) are on their bye weekend, the other eight Big 12 teams are in action, as Texas visits Kansas, Oklahoma State hosts Baylor, Texas Tech travels to Oklahoma and Baylor hosts Kansas State. After this weekend, the Huskers will be off for finals before hosting Oklahoma State in a three-game series beginning May 10.

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Scouting Louisiana

Louisiana comes to Lincoln playing its best ball of the season, winning nine of its last 11 to come in with a 21-25 mark. Under the direction of Coach Tony Robichaux (307-217 in nine seasons at UL), the Ragin’ Cajuns have been one of the top teams in the Sun Belt Conference. UL finished the 2002 season with a 39-23 record before losing at LSU in the decisive game of the regional.

Offensively, UL has struggled at the plate at times, hitting .274 as a team with only three starters hitting above .300. Outfielder Corey Coles paces UL with a .team-best .369 average with 29 RBIs, while leading hte team in hits (66), doubles (12), homers (eight) and stolen bases (10). The Ragin’ Cajuns rotation of Kevin Ardoin, Jordy Templet and and Austin Faught have combined for 13 wins, as the staff is holding opponents to a .273 average.

The teams have met only once, as the Huskers took a 6-3 win in Lafayette during the 2001 season. In that game, the Huskers jumped to a 6-0 lead after two innings and got a strong performnace from Shane Komine, who went seven innings, allowing three runs on seven hits for the win. Matt Hopper, who went 1-for-3 with an RBI and a pair of walks, and Drew Anderson, who pinch ran, are the only current Huskers to face UL. The series will continue next spring, as Nebraska is scheduled to play a three-game series in early March in Lafayette.

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GAME 1

Louisiana scores 2 in the first.

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Top of the 4th

Louisiana 3
Nebraska 2

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Cajuns win 4-2

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LOUISIANA Hawks Field NEBRASKA

4 Louisiana's record 22-25 2

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E Louisiana 2 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 4 7 0 Nebraska 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 3

LINCOLN — When you’re hot, you’re hot.

The Unviersity of Louisiana Ragin’ Cajun baseball team made it seven straight victories here Friday night and did so in impressive fashion, upsetting the nation’s fourth-ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers 4-2 in front of 4,443 fans at Hawks Field at Haymarket Park.

The Cajuns (22-25) took a 2-0 lead in the first inning as Dallas Morris ripped a one-out double in the top of the first inning.

Corey Coles continued to swing the hot stick for the Cajuns, belting an RBI triple to right center to plate Morris and give the Cajuns a 1-0 lead.

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Huskers Fall 4-2 to Louisiana

Matt Wells had three hits, including his fourth homer of the year.

Lincoln - Louisiana-Lafayette scored three runs in the first two innings and made it stand up, downing fourth-ranked Nebraska, 4-2, in front of crowd of 4,443 at Hawks Field Friday evening.

The Ragin’ Cajuns, who improved to 22-25, held Nebraska to two runs, its lowest total since March 18, on just seven hits to become only the second unranked team to win in the two-year history of Hawks Field.

Sophomore catcher Matt Wells provided all of the Huskers’ offense with a career high three hits, including his fourth homer of the season, a two-run shot in the bottom of the second. Daniel Bruce also had two hits, going 2-for-4, but three Ragin’ Cajun pitchers held Nebraska (35-12) scoreless for the final 7.1 innings.

Andy Gros (4-6) came in for UL starter Kevin Ardoin in the fifth and earned the win, allowing just two hits in 4.1 scoreless innings before Kraig Schambough retired the only batter he faced for his third save.

UL took a quick 2-0 lead off of Husker starter Aaron Marsden, stringing together three consecutive hits with one out in the top of the first. Dallas Morris doubled and came around to score on Corey Coles’ triple to the wall in right center before Ryan Core gave the visitors a two-run lead with an RBI single to left.

Associate Head Coach Rob Childress, who is filling in for Head Coach Mike Anderson, who is in Colorado with his ill father, said the Huskers’ slow start was costly in tonight’s loss.

"I really felt like we weren't ready as a team to play at the start of the game," Childress said. "After the third inning, we got after it and it was too little to late. (Kevin) Ardoin did a nice job with the start, and Andy Gros is a veteran guy that we didn't make adjustments to. He did a great job and didn't really give us a chance (offensively)."

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NEBRASKA SI

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My dad might be in the Nebraska audience today. I told him he would have to root for the Cajuns and if the crowd turned on him to run into the broadcast booth yelling my name.

I hope he didn't take me to seriously

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LOUISIANA Hawks Field NEBRASKA

2 Louisiana's record 22-26 6

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E Louisiana 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 2 9 0 Nebraska 0 2 1 0 0 2 0 1 0 6 9 0

Cornhuskers even series with Cajuns

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Alex Gordon was 3-for-3 and scored three runs with an RBI while Curtis Ledbetter and Matt Wells each homered to lead Nebraska to a 6-2 win over Louisiana on Saturday.

Wells’ two-run homer gave the Cornhuskers (36-12) a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second.

Gordon singled in the fourth to score Ledbetter, who opened the inning with a double, giving Nebraska a 3-0 lead.

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