Zach Osborne tossed his fourth complete game of the season and guided Louisiana to a 3-1 win over Middle Tennessee Friday night at M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field in a game that was played in one hour and 56 minutes. Osborne struck out 11 and held the powerful Blue Raiders lineup to six hits. The only blemish on his 10th quality start in 11 appearances was a run that scored on a 6-4-3 double play in the seventh inning.
Osborne improved to 7-2 (7-1 in Sun Belt play) and secured the Ragin’ Cajuns’ seventh consecutive Sun Belt Conference victory.
Louisiana/>/> (26-16, 11-8 Sun Belt) extended its regular season win streak win over MT to six games (26-16, 14-8 Sun Belt).
Due to expected inclement weather on Sunday, the two teams will wrap up the series on Saturday with a 12 Noon doubleheader.
Chad Keefer and Lance Marvel each homered for the Ragin’ Cajuns and Justin Robichaux added an RBI single to provide all the offense that Osborne would need.
Kenneth Roberts pitched a complete game for the Blue Raiders and kept his team in the game by scattering eight hits over eight innings.
It was a quick start as both pitchers retired the side in order in the first inning, Osborne on 12 pitches and Roberts on 11 pitches.
Solo home runs by Keefer and Marvel in the bottom of the second put Louisiana/>/> on the scoreboard first.
UL erased MT’s first scoring threat in the third when Osborne induced a double play ball on Blake McDade with the bases loaded to end the half inning.
The Cajuns defense thwarted another Blue Raiders threat in the fourth inning. A Bryce Brentz double and Tyler Burnett single put runners on the corners with no outs.
Marvel fielded a shallow fly out from Justin Miller and made a strong throw to hold Brentz at third base. On the next at bat, Matt Goulas fielded a shallow fly out to right by Justin Guidry and fired the ball to Keefer for a tag out of Brentz at home.
Keefer and Tyler Frederick led off the bottom of the fourth with back-to-back singles. Keefer moved up on a fly out to the warning track by Alex Fuselier and scored on Robichaux’s single through the right side to up the UL lead to 3-0.
BASES NOTED: The Cajuns have now won 12 of their last 14 games and finished April with a 13-4 record…Louisiana moved to 19-9 in regular season Sun Belt games vs. Middle Tennessee…Zach Osborne lowered his ERA to 2.15 – the lowest mark of any starting pitcher in the Sun Belt…This was the shortest game of the season for Louisiana, besting the 2:12 game time vs. Nicholls State on Feb. 20…Osborne’s quality start was the 19th of the season for Cajuns pitching…UL improved to 23-5 when out-hitting the opposition…The Cajuns ended the Blue Raiders’ five-game win streak in SBC play.


Permalink | Comments