TROY, Ala. – Zach Osborne was stunning again, as he pitched the Cajuns to an 11-3 win over FIU in the first game of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament. The Cajuns stay in the winner’s bracket thanks to explosive hitting behind Osborne’s second complete game of the season. The Cajuns are now 26-28-1 on the season.

Louisiana tallied 10-plus hits for the fourth straight game and fifth in the last six, following a stretch of eight games in which they did not crack the 10-hit mark, between April 26 at Troy and May 12 at Rice. The Cajuns have registered double-digit hit totals in 27 games in 2009, and have produced 64 hits in the last four games.

Zach Osborne was excellent again as the Cajuns’ starting pitcher, pitching his and the team’s second complete game of the year to improve to 5-3. He allowed just three runs, only two of them earned, on seven hits while tossing seven strikeouts and walking three. He ran into some trouble in the first inning, in which he gave up one earned run and one unearned run on two hits and an error, but settled down and cruised until the seventh. In the second through the sixth, Osborne retired 14 of 18 batters faced, allowing just two hits in the four innings.

In the seventh inning, a walk led to an RBI groundout for FIU, but that was the only inning after the first in which Osborne ran into trouble. He received plenty of help on defense, as Kyle Bostick and Greg Fontenot combined to play a sturdy middle infield once again. The defense produced two double plays on the game and committed just one error, as opposed to FIU’s three.

Scott Hawkins led the Cajuns’ offense with a three-run home run in the first inning to help UL jump out to a quick 5-0 lead after one half inning of play. Hawkins was 3-for-5 on the day with three RBIs, and Les Smith contributed two runs on 2-for-4 hitting. Chad Keefer (1-for-4), Tyler Benzel (1-for-4) and Kyle Olasin (1-for-3) each drove one across, Keefer on a solo home run in the eighth. Benzel and Kyle Bostick each cranked their first triples of the year, while Alex Fuselier hit .500 on a 3-for-6 outing. No one in the lineup went without a hit, and each player scored at least once as well.

The Cajuns got off to a great start, as Matt Goulas leading off the game with a double off the right field wall. Alex Fuselier followed it up by beating out a perfectly-placed bunt to the left side and moving Goulas to third. Les Smith, in the third spot in the lineup, drove in the tournament’s first run with a sharp single through the left side. Chad Keefer laid down a sacrifice bunt next, which FIU starting pitcher Scott Rembisz threw into left field trying to force out Fuselier at third and instead allowing him to score and putting runners on second and third for Scott Hawkins. The Cajuns’ all-time career home run leader went opposite field for a three-run jack, his 41st home run. Louisiana finished the first inning with a 5-0 lead on four hits and an FIU error.

FIU posted their first runs in the bottom of the first, as a hit batsman, an error on Kyle Bostick which thwarted a double play attempt, and a scorching grounder that found its way past Fontenot drove in one. Then, with two runners on, FIU first baseman Tim Jobe looped a single into right field to score the second run. Tyler Benzel started a 5-4-3 double play to end the inning, preserving a 5-2 lead.

Kyle Olasin earned his way on in the top of the second with an infield single, then stole second to move into scoring position. Two batters later, Les Smith hit a towering fly ball into no-man’s-land in short right-center and got around to second before it fell safely and drove in Fuselier from second to give the Cajuns a 6-2 lead.

Osborne found a groove in the bottom of the second, and allowed no runs and just one hit, albeit a triple, to preserve the 6-2 Louisiana lead. He kept them quiet again in the third.

Chad Keefer started the top of the fifth reaching on a wild pitch dropped third strike, and Scott Hawkins got his second hit of the day with a hard-hit liner to centerfield to put runners on first and second. Greg Fontenot laid down the Cajuns’ second great bunt and everyone was safe on the sacrifice single. Kyle Bostick then hit into a 1-2-3 double play before FIU third baseman Raiko Alfonso let a Tyler Benzel groundball get through his legs to score Hawkins and Fontenot on what should have been the third out. The Cajuns went to the bottom of the fifth protecting an 8-2 lead.

Kyle Bostick and Tyler Benzel smacked back-to-back triples to start off the seventh inning and extend the lead to 9-2. Benzel came home on a sacrifice fly to left field off the bat of Kyle Olasin to make it 10-2 heading to the bottom half.

Chad Keefer tacked on a run in the eighth with a solo shot over the right field wall, the second opposite field home run of the game for the Cajuns, to give UL an 11-3 lead.

The Cajuns will have to wait until the conclusion of the 12:30 p.m. game between FAU and Middle Tennessee to find out who they play next. The Cajuns will take on the winner of that game in a game scheduled for 4 p.m. Thursday, assuming the day’s two earlier games do not run long.

UL SI