The Book: 2004 Baseball

[NewsCopy]

Sanders slated to start game at Zephyr Field.

METAIRIE – Louisiana and Tulane are in similar situations heading into their only baseball meeting of the season tonight.

Both clubs face key conference series coming up this weekend, so some of their lineups and decisions tonight may be guided by future considerations.

The Ragin’ Cajuns, currently in first place in the Sun Belt Conference, face always-strong Florida International – one of the teams tied for second place – in a three-game road series beginning Friday in Miami. The Green Wave, meanwhile, are two games out of the Conference USA lead and plays Southern Mississippi, one of the teams tied for first, in a three-game series in New Orleans starting Friday.

But that doesn’t mean the teams won’t put any emphasis on tonight’s 6:30 p.m. meeting at Zephyr Field. To the contrary, both teams are scheduled to put top-line arms into action when the teams meet at Zephyr Field.

The Cajuns (24-11, 9-3 Sun Belt) are slated to go with a rotation that includes all of their relief-pitching staff. Sophomore lefthander Brandt Sanders (1-1) is scheduled to start, and righthanders Kraig Schambough (5-2) and Patrick Green (1-1) are also slated to pitch.

“We’ll take our bullpen and let them get some work,” said Cajun coach Tony Robichaux. “We won’t go with them long so that we can keep them available for the weekend.”

The Green Wave (26-12, 10-5 Conference USA) will go with sophomore righthander Billy Mohl (5-2, 3.70 ERA), Tulane’s Friday-night starter through the first 10 weeks of the season and the opening starter in each of the Wave’s C-USA series to date. Mohl will make his first mid-week start.

The change in pitching rotation for the Green Wave is an attempt at a shakeup, after Tulane went 1-3 during the past week and lost its first league series of the year 2-1 to Alabama-Birmingham. The Wave also dropped a 6-4 decision to Sun Belt member New Orleans last Tuesday, also at Zephyr Field.

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Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@lafayette.gannett.com

[NewsCopy]

Today, 6:30 p.m., Zephyr Field, Metairie

RECORDS: UL 24-11, 9-3; Tulane 26-12, 10-5

TICKETS: Available at park beginning 90 minutes prior to first pitch. RADIO: KPEL-AM 1420 with Jay Walker and Steve Peloquin, air time 6:15 p.m. TELEVISION: none.

PROBABLE STARTING PITCHERS: UL Lafayette -- Brandt Sanders (6-2, 165, So., LH, 1-1, 2.88 ERA); Tulane -- Billy Mohl (6-4, 202, So., RH, 5-2, 3.70 ERA).

OFFENSIVE LEADERS: UL Lafayette -- 3B Dallas Morris (5-10, 197, Jr., .392, 12 HR, 45 RBI); ); 1B Phillip Hawke (6-3, 240, Jr., .356, 9 HR, 36 RBI); 2B Justin Merendino (5-8, 170, Jr., .344, 6 HR, 26 RBI). Tulane -- LF Matt Barket (6-0, 201, Jr., .417, 4 HR, 34 RBI); DH/OF Wes Swackhamer (6-2, 213, Jr., .368, 5 HR, 19 RBI); 1B Greg Dini (6-2, 203, Jr., .338, 8 HR, 35 RBI).

SERIES: The Cajuns lead the all-time series 37-32, with tonight's game the 70th meeting between the clubs. The Cajuns also hold a 19-16 lead in games played in New Orleans. The teams split last year's meetings, with Tulane winning 11-4 at Turchin Stadium and the Cajuns winning 9-8 at Moore Field.

LAGNIAPPE: Tonight's game is the only scheduled meeting this year between the teams ... Tulane has played two games at Zephyr Field this season, losing both in a 6-0 decision to LSU on March 2 and a 6-4 decision to cross-town rival New Orleans last Tuesday. The Green Wave, though, holds an all-time record of 19-5 at the home field of the Triple-A New Orleans Zephyrs ... Who to believe -- Tulane is unranked in the Collegiate Baseball magazine top 25 poll but is 18th in the Baseball America magazine top 25 poll.

NEXT: Cajuns wrap up their eight-game road swing Friday through Sunday and return to Sun Belt Conference play against Florida International in Miami, Fla., with Friday's game at 6 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday's games at noon.

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[NewsCopy]

Baseball To Battle UL-Lafayette Wednesday

The Tulane University baseball team will look to get back to its winning ways when the Green Wave plays host to in-state foe Louisiana-Lafayette Wednesday night at 6:30 at Zephyr Field.

Both teams have similar numbers as Tulane (26-12) enters the midweek matchup with a .316 batting average and a 3.98 ERA while the Ragin' Cajuns (24-11) come to town with a batting average of .312 and an ERA of 4.03. The difference will be in momentum as the Green Wave are coming off a touch 1-3 week, including a 2-1 Conference USA Series loss at UAB, while UL-Lafayette is fresh off a 2-1 Sun Belt Conference series victory over Arkansas-Little Rock.

To shake things up, the Green Wave will send sophomore right-hander Billy Mohl to the mound where he will match up with Cajuns sophomore southpaw Brandt Sanders. Mohl, Tulane's Friday-night starter through the first 10 weeks of the season, comes into the game with a 5-2 record and a 3.70 ERA to go along with 46 strikeouts and 12 walks in 58.1 innings of work.

Sanders, meanwhile, will be making his third start and 16th appearance of the year in Wednesday's matchup of state rivals. The native of Patterson, La., has a 1-1 record and a 2.88 ERA, and like Mohl, has done a good job of keeping the ball over the plate with 40 strikeouts and just nine walks in 34.1 innings.

The game will be the third of the year at The Shrine on Airline for the Green Wave, but Tulane will be looking for its first win of the season there as the squad dropped a 6-0 contest to arch-rival LSU back on March 2 and lost 6-4 to cross-town foe UNO last Tuesday in game three of the Popeyes Cup. Zephyr Field has been a kind place for Tulane to play prior to the 2004 season as the Green Wave entered the year with a 19-5 lifetime record at the home field of the Triple-A New Orleans Zephyrs.

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By Tulane Media Relations

[waterboy]

Just got home from the game, good turnout from the Cajun faithful. Good rally at the end, but the big plays early killed us. Oh well conference play starts again Friday.

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METAIRIE — A furious ninth-inning rally by Louisiana fell just short as the four-run frame forced the Cajuns to settle for a 7-6 loss to the Tulane Green Wave at Zephyr Field on Wednesday.

Brad Saloom got the Cajuns (24-12) going in the ninth with a single, before scoring on a Rhett Buras double. Jason Rodriguez chased home Buras with a double. Micah Cockrell then homer to suddenly make it a one-run game.

Tulane reliever Daniel Latham then settled down to prevent any more damage. That allowed Wave starter Billy Mohl (6-3) to notch the victory after allowing just two runs on six hits, a walk and striking out two in eight innings.

Brandt Sanders got the loss throwing the first four innings giving up four runs on six hits while fanning three. Sanders (1-2) made his second mid-week start in two weeks with tonight’s outing.

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[NewsCopy]

Anyone can have a bad night.

Louisiana’s baseball team and coaching staff are hoping that Kevin Ardoin doesn’t have two in a row.

The Ragin’ Cajuns’ conference-opening hurler struggled mightily last Friday in a 14-10 loss at Arkansas-Little Rock, but he’ll be back on the hill tonight when the Cajuns open a key Sun Belt Conference series at Florida International.

“Sometimes a guy doesn’t have his best stuff,” said Cajun coach Tony Robichaux. “That’s when you have to learn how to win in different ways.”

The Cajuns (24-12, 9-3 Sun Belt) put their top spot in the Sun Belt on the line against a Golden Panther team (21-22, 6-3 Sun Belt) that has been mercurial for much of the 2004 season.

The series opens tonight at 6 p.m. at University Park, with noon games Saturday and Sunday.

Ardoin had been solid in virtually all of his Friday outings on his way to a 4-1 record and a 2.66 ERA — until last Friday, when the worst-hitting team in the league rapped out 17 hits and scored 13 earned runs off he and three other Cajun pitchers.

The Cajuns regrouped, though, and won 6-5 and 8-4 decisions on Saturday and Sunday for their fourth straight Sun Belt series win. They’re the only team in the league to win best-of-three series in each of the first four weekends.

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Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@lafayette.gannett.com

[1stTake]

I have been listening to the game in my car, I lost my internet feed a long time ago. I could barely make out the Cajuns lost in the bottom of the last inning with a walk off home run. Can someone closer to KPEL fill me in on the details?

[NewsCopy]

MIAMI, Fla. — Louisiana’s baseball squad turned in a performance exactly opposite from its last Friday night effort, but the result was the same.

One week after the Ragin’ Cajuns got tons of hitting but not much pitching in a Friday 14-10 loss at Arkansas-Little Rock, the Cajuns got a strong pitching performance from Kevin Ardoin here Friday night but got virtually no offensive production.

Florida International didn’t get much themselves, but got the one big blow the Golden Panthers needed with Brian Aragon’s ninth-inning homer providing a 3-2 victory in the opening game of their weekend Sun Belt series.

The Panthers (22-22, 7-3 Sun Belt) came back from a 2-0 first-inning deficit with runs in the second and sixth innings off Ardoin, and the left-handed-hitting Aragon poked an opposite-field homer with one out in the bottom of the ninth to snap a four-game FIU losing streak.

The Cajuns (24-13, 9-4 Sun Belt) scored twice in the first inning off FIU starter Mark Worrell, those coming on a wild pitch and a walk, but left the bases loaded in that inning. That proved to be a sign of things to come, as UL Lafayette left 14 runners stranded compared to five for the Panthers.

“We had an opportunity to get it done and we didn’t,” said Cajun coach Tony Robichaux. “The only runs we got, they gave to us, so we didn’t compete at all at the plate. It was not a good performance.”

The teams play the middle game of their three-game series at noon today and wrap up the series Sunday at noon.

Ardoin (4-2) got the hard-luck loss, scattering eight hits and allowing three earned runs while fanning five. FIU closer Danny Hernandez (6-0), who struck out Micah Cockrell with the bases loaded in the top of the ninth as the only batter he faced, picked up the victory.

“Kevin gave us everything he had,” Robichaux said, “and we just didn’t protect him. We got a great performance from him ... he gave us every opportunity to win.”

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[Cajuns1]

I just wanted to share this with you guys. My brother is the volunteer assistant coach with the baseball team. If you didn't catch it in The Advertiser this morning, I attached a picture of him for everyone to see. I guess you could call this being proud of my big brother!

[1stTake]

I can't see it I don't hink uploads work with bmp