The Book: 2004 Baseball

[Oldman]

name, pos ht. wt. hometown-hs (jc)

tim beasley, rhp-6-4 185 glenwood, min. (iowa western cc)
c.j. blue, Lhp/1b 6-1 170 mesquite, texas-poteet

matthew bounds, Of 6-0 200 purvis, miss-purvis

jonathan cottrell, rhp 6-4 180 niceville, fla okaloosa-walton jc

geoffrey craig, If 6-2 185 palm harbor, fla-clear.cath

john glass, rhp 6-2 200 clermont, fla-east ridge

t.j. gros, Lhp 6-1 165 amelia-morgan city (andy's cousin)

matthew hicks, If 5-11 175 houston, texas-memorial

jonathan lucroy, C 6-1 185 umatilla, fla..-umatilla

hunter moody, Lhp 6-1 185 clinton-silliman inst.

ken pokryfke, Lhp 6-1 195 twin lakes, wis (wabash valley cc)

jonathan smith, Lhp 6-1 185 new iberia-catholic hi


hopes this helps! okay understant the DREADED DRAFT can make a mess of things as you well know, and things do change at times.

[RednWhitex8]

For us new to the crew when and where are the luncheons held?

[Steve Gossen]

I would be very interested in learning some performance statistics about these signees. This would give us some assistance in determining the quality of these, hopefully, new Ragin Cajuns.


K

[Oldman]

sorry i cannot supply you with that info. but if you are able to make one of the luncheon you could ask one of the coaches to give you a run down

[Oldman]

the luncheons are held in the convention building upstairs every tuesday 11:30, hope to see you there.

[NewsCopy]

LOUISIANA La. — One of Louisiana's’s early-season baseball goals was to have the Ragin’ Cajun players as healthy and prepared as possible for the start of Sun Belt Conference play.

It looks as though coach Tony Robichaux has reached that goal in time for tonight’s league opener against Western Kentucky at Moore Field.

The Cajuns (14-7) have had three key players miss some time through the season’s first 21 games. Shortstop Micah Cockrell missed five games with a stress fracture in his foot, pitcher Jered Salazar rolled an ankle fielding a bunt and didn’t see game action for two weeks, and relief pitcher Patrick Green has been deliberate by design in his rehabilitation of an elbow injury.

All three will see action this weekend against the Hilltoppers (13-11) when the teams open league play at 6:30 p.m. in the first of three weekend games. The squads will also meet at 2:05 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday.

“We’ve got everybody ready, and I feel good about where we are right now,” said Robichaux. “We’ve had to play some close games and we’ve played some games where we’ve had big leads, so we’ve had different kind of games to prepare us. Now it’s time to go out and play games that mean something.”

The Cajuns will wrap up a 12-game homestand with the three weekend contests and are 7-2 thus far even though falling 4-3 to Lamar on Tuesday.

“We needed the Lamar game,” Robichaux said. “That brought us back to playing real baseball. This game can humble you, and I like that we were humbled a little bit going into conference play. We’ll be better focused.”

The rest of the story

Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@lafayette.gannett.com

[Oldman]

baseball conference starts tonight, hope to see alot of you there, this could be a very important series in the whole scheme of things being that it's at home and you want to get a good start. so come out and support the baseball team this weekend. GEAUX CAJUNS.

[Turbine]

I'm hoping to be there.

[Oldman]

good turbine, come by and say hello.

[NewsCopy]

LOUISIANA La. - Justin Merendino homered twice in the game as Louisiana took Western Kentucky down to the wire winning 4-3 Friday night in the Cajuns’ Sun Belt Conference opener at Moore Field. UL goes to 15-7 on the season with the win.

After failing to convert a save opportunity, Kraig Schambough took the win throwing the ninth and allowing one hit on the three batters he faced. Schambough (3-1) entered the game in relief of Kevin Ardoin who pitched a strong game going eight innings allowing three runs on five hits while fanning six.

Greg Durr accepted the loss pitching the bottom of the ninth walking two and allowing the winning run to cross home.

Ardoin sat the Western Kentucky side in order in the top of the first and second innings.

Merendino hammered a 3-2 pitch over the left field wall to start the bottom of inning one, giving Louisiana-Lafayette an early 1-0 lead.

Western Kentucky’s catcher Jordan Newton singled to right before scoring on a Matt Ransdell double in the top of the third.

Micah Cockrell singled to open the bottom of the third. Merendino moved him into scoring position with a bunt, but WKU starter Grady Hinchman would escape the inning without any run damage done.

Ardoin cruised through the top of the fourth getting a pair of ground outs to the infield before striking out one.

In the bottom of the fourth, Brad Saloom knocked a two-out flare into left, but Hinchman would again get out of the inning without surrendering a run in the inning.

The toppers took the lead in the fifth when Marcus Page opened the inning with a single to right before stealing second. Dominic Rio laid down a sacrifice bunt to move the runner to third. Philip Thayer hit a sacrifice fly deep to right to score Page who was tagging up. The run gave the Hilltoppers a 2-1 advantage.

Matt Johnston reached second on a fielder’s choice and a throwing error before Tim Grogan walked putting Hilltoppers on first and second in the top of the sixth. It would be Ardoin to pitch out of the jam this time as he retired his next two to get out of the frame.

Dallas Morris bunted his way on with one away in the bottom of the sixth. Phillip Hawke drew a walk advancing Morris 90 feet. The Cajuns; however, could not secure runs as Hinchman retired the newt two batters to get out of the inning.

Ardoin worked his way out of the top of the seventh after surrendering a double to WKU’s Cary Page.

Coker walked and stole second with two gone in the bottom of the seventh before Merendino hit his second homerun of the night to give the Cajuns a 3-2 lead.

In the same inning, Josh Landry laced a single to right-center chasing Hinchman in favor of Michael Shope who got the last out in the stanza for the Hilltoppers.

Western pulled even in the top of the ninth as Matt Gunning walked to open inning for WKU before Schambough entered the game in relief of Ardoin. The Hilltoppers played small ball again to move the tying run over to second. Pinch hitter Antone Towns plated Gunning with a single up the middle knotting the game at 3-3.

Greg Durr came on to throw the ninth inning for WKU and promptly gave up a walk to Coker. Merendino bunted Coker over to second. Landry was issued an intentional free pass before Morris was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Coker scored the winning run, waltzing home on a wild pitch as Rhett Buras stood at the plate.

The Cajuns will play Game two of the weekend set at 2:05 p.m. tomorrow before wrapping up the conference opening series Sunday at 1 p.m.

LOUISIANA SI

Kevin Ardoin fanned six WKU batters.