UL - The aluminum was hot Friday night for the second straight game, as the Ragin’ Cajuns baseball team rolled to an 11-1 victory over Sun Belt opponent UALR, thanks to some big sticks, confident defense, and another effective outing from freshman hurler Alex Fuselier.
It all came together for Tony Robichaux’s squad, with 14 hits to score double-digits for the second game in the row, no errors, and impressive pitching. The game was the 1,300th of Robichaux’s career as a head coach, and M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field’s 700th win as the home of the Cajuns. Louisiana moved to 8-9-1 overall and 2-4 in Sun Belt action, while UALR dropped to 7-11 overall and 3-4 in conference play.
UL had big help from Les Smith (3-5) and Thad Griffen (2-5), who both smacked home runs in the game, the third and fourth of their seasons respectively. Smith’s jack scored two runs, and Griffen added another RBI in the eighth to join Smith, Scott Hawkins (2-4) and Matt Goulas (1-4) in the two-RBI category.
Kyle Olasin (1-4) and Kyle Bostick (1-3) provided a run each to round out the list of Cajuns with RBIs.
Alex Fuselier provided another great outing from the mound in his first weekend start, pitching his way through seven complete innings, allowing one run, earned, on just one hit, four walks, and four strikeouts. He earned the win to move to 2-0 on the season.
Blake Wascom took over for the last two innings, allowing only one hit while walking no one and striking out three batters in lock-down relief.
UALR’s Jake Sullivan took the loss in 6 1/3 innings, allowing eight runs, all earned, on 11 hits, two walks, and six strikeouts. Alex Smith threw 1 2/3 innings, allowing three unearned runs on three hits, one walk, and three strikeouts.
The Cajuns opened the scoring in the bottom of the first with a Scott Hawkins single into center field, scoring Matt Goulas from second.
Both teams were then scoreless until Louisiana plated three in the bottom of the fourth. On four straight singles to open the inning, from Chad Keefer, Les Smith, Kyle Bostick (RBI) and Kyle Olasin (RBI), followed by a Matt Goulas RBI groundout.
Les Smith padded the lead with his two-run home run to right field in the next inning, upping the Cajuns’ lead to 6-0.
In the bottom of the seventh, Goulas earned his second RBI with a sacrifice fly to left field, scoring Olasin from third.
The Trojans logged their first run off of Fuselier in the top of the seventh when catcher Jack Larner singled in Josh Marazzito, taking advantage of two straight walks off the southpaw.
Thad Griffen answered the run when he struck his solo homer to right field in the bottom of the seventh.
Louisiana picked up three unearned runs in the eighth. Goulas reached on an error in what would have been an inning-ending groundout, and scored on a Scott Hawkins double. Hawkins scored on a wild pitch, the same pitch that allowed Travis Whipple to reach on a dropped third strike. Thad Griffen added his second RBI in the next at bat, scoring Whipple on a single to left.
The series continues Saturday with Game 2, first pitch set for 2 p.m. Tune into SportsRadio ESPN 1420-AM on the radio or MyKLAF-TV on television (Cox 13) to catch the broadcast, and track live statistics and watch live video on RaginCajuns.com.
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Ragin' Cajuns Get Big Win Over UALR
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