LOUISIANA La. — Louisiana’s baseball squad opened the longest homestand of its season on a solid note Wednesday night, and now the Ragin’ Cajuns will look to turn that success into another Moore Field winning streak.

The Cajuns (8-5), coming off an 11-6 win over Nicholls State on Wednesday, will welcome Furman’s Paladins (4-8) for a three-game series beginning tonight at 6:30 p.m. in the first-ever meeting between the clubs.

And Cajun head coach Tony Robichaux will be looking for improvement, from both last weekend’s three losses at Wichita State and even from Wednesday’s win.

“We played well in some areas,” Robichaux said after the win over the Colonels, “but what we did tonight won’t be good enough against a Wichita State or somebody that we’d meet in a regional. We gave up three runs on one hit in the sixth inning, and that’s inexcusable.”

The visiting Paladins won’t be confused with Wichita or any other Top 10 team, but they have won two of their last three including a 2-1 victory over Gardner Webb when four pitchers combined for a four-hitter.

The Furman squad of head coach Ron Smith may need that kind of pitching all weekend, since the Paladins are hitting only .236 as a team with only 91 hits in 12 games. Only two regulars — center fielder Andrew Greene (.333) and third baseman Derek Norman (.310) — are hitting over .275.

Furman also has only two left-handed hitters among its 10 most-frequent position players, and that’s a tough thing if Cajun pitcher Kevin Ardoin is on. The junior righthander (1-1, 1.33), slated to open the series tonight, has allowed opponents to hit only .168 in his four outings.

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Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@lafayette.gannett.com