Chad Keefer and Jordan Poirrier launched two-run home runs to fuel the offense and Zach Osborne shut down Troy's batters in a 6-0 win for Louisiana on Friday night in the series opener at M.L. "Tigue" Moore Field.
The Ragin' Cajuns (16-14, 5-8 Sun Belt) took the series opener from Troy for the fifth time in as many Sun Belt series and improved to 9-4 at "The Tigue" vs. the Trojans (16-13, 4-6 Sun Belt).
The two teams will play the middle game of the series on Saturday at 6 p.m. It will mark the debut of Saturday nights at "The Tigue" as the final four home games will be played at 6 p.m.
Osborne turned in his third complete game of the season and UL's first complete game shutout of the 2010 season. It was his second complete game shutout of Troy/>/> in as many meetings. Osborne went the distance and gave up only four hits on Friday night last season in Troy/>/> in a 5-0 win.
On this Friday night, Osborne allowed only one hit and faced only four hitters over the minimum.
Osborne's gem was the first complete game one-hit, shutout by a Cajuns pitcher since Buddy Glass accomplished the feat on April 8, 2006 vs. Texas A&M Corpus Christi/>/>.
Keefer's homer extended his career-best hitting streak to 22 games which is only one game shy of tying Chris Webb's record 23 set in 1996. He finished 3-for-4 with two RBI.
For the ninth consecutive game the Cajuns cracked the scoreboard first. Keefer launched a two-run homer over the left field fence in the bottom of the first to extend his hitting streak.
Osborne retired the first seven Trojans he faced to set the tone early.
Louisiana/>/> sent eight batters to the plate in the third inning and scored four times to stretch the lead to 6-0. Jordan Poirrier's seventh home run of the season, which followed an RBI single from Matt Goulas that opened the scoring, was the highlight.
Both pitchers stole the spotlight the rest of the way. Osborne held the Trojans hitless over the final 6 2/3 innings of play. Troy starter Andrew Dickinson settled in after the four-run inning and limited the Cajuns to two hits the final five at bats.


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