GREENVILLE, N.C. – Zach Osborne pitched another gem before he and the defense ran into trouble in the seventh inning, eventually falling 7-1 to the East Carolina Pirates Friday night. The Ragin’ Cajuns are dropped to 21-23-1 overall with the loss.

The Cajuns struggled offensively from the start, as the first 10 batters were put out or struck out. East Carolina starter Chris Heston’s spell finally broke in the top of the fourth when Travis Whipple knocked a single into left field. Louisiana only put up two more hits, one of them a ninth-inning home run, also from Whipple. The three-hit effort ties for the season’s second lowest.

East Carolina starter Chris Heston kept the Cajuns guessing, throwing eight innings of two-hit baseball. He struck out 11 Cajuns on his way to the win, improving to 7-0 on the season.

Whipple finished the game at 2-for-4 with the only RBI. The home run was Whipple’s eighth of the year, and he now leads the team in that category. Thad Griffen notched the team’s only other hit, finishing 1-for-3 on the game.

Osborne (3-3) took the loss on seven inning, allowing six hits to score four runs, two earned, on two walks and five strikeouts. Through six innings, he held the Pirates to four hits and one run. Blake Haagen relieved with one inning, allowing three runs, two earned, on two hits and two strikeouts.

The Cajuns’ defense made four errors, costing the team three runs. Two came in the three-run seventh inning and one in the three-run eighth.

Osborne retired the Pirates’ leadoff hitter and center fielder Trent Whitehead on strikes, but gave up a solo home run to the next batter, second baseman Ryan Wood. He settled down and went on to pitch well in the second, third and fourth innings before an error in the fifth broke the momentum.

The first 10 Cajuns at the plate were put out or struck out, finally getting the first hit off East Carolina starter Chris Heston in the top of the fourth when Travis Whipple knocked a single into left field. Heston stuttered with two subsequent walks to load the bases with two outs, but struck out Chad Keefer to escape trouble and keep the score at 1-0 Pirates.

Osborne cruised until the fifth, when a Greg Fontenot throwing error allowed a one-out batter to reach. A bit shaken, Osborne gave up a single and a walk to load the bases. He battled back though and struck out Trent Whitehead and Ryan Wood to end the threat and the inning, the score still 1-0 in favor of East Carolina.

In the bottom of the seventh, Osborne was again shaken up by an error, but this time on his own. After giving up a leadoff single to Devin Harris, Osborne fielded a Dustin Harrington bunt, but his throw went behind Kyle Bostick covering at first. That left runners on the corners for Drew Schieber, who pegged a two-RBI double to the right field corner. He came around to score on a throwing error by Travis Whipple, who tried to catch him advancing to third after catching a Jared Avchen liner. The Pirates carried a 4-0 advantage to the eighth inning.

Blake Haagen entered to start the bottom of the ninth. Matt Goulas dropped a fly ball to allow the leadoff man Stephen Batts on and around to third, and a grounder back up the middle from Kyle Roller scored him. Then, Brandon Henderson cranked a two-run home run over the center field wall to extend the Cajuns’ deficit to 7-0.

Travis Whipple cleared up the shutout with a one-out bomb to right field in the ninth, but that was all the Cajuns could muster.

Game 2 of the series gets started at 2 p.m. CDT Saturday, broadcast via NewsRadio 105.1 KPEL and KPEL1051.com, with live statistics available on RaginCajuns.com.





UL SI