SWEEEEP

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Big bats support Faught, Blue in two wins over La. Tech

LOUISIANA La. - The University of Louisiana baseball squad got one pitching performance that it expected here Saturday, and one that it probably didn't.

Because of that, the Ragin' Cajuns are 3-0 on the young season, and none of them have been close.

The Cajuns, behind the pitching of Austin Faught and freshman C. J. Blue, swept Saturday's twinbill from La. Tech by 9-3 and 10-5 scores after taking a 10-0 Friday win over the Bulldogs (3-3).

Faught allowed five hits and a lone run through six innings in the opening game - a performance that didn't come as a surprise since the senior Texan was a regular part of the UL rotation two seasons ago.

The performance of Blue, though, surprised many of the 2,117 Moore Field fans. The natural freshman, coming on in relief of fellow frosh Buddy Glass in the second inning of the nightcap, gave up only two hits and one run and fanned five in five and one-third innings.

"C.J. did a great job of changing the momentum back to us," said Cajun coach Tony Robichaux. "As a freshman, you want to give your ability a chance, and he did that."

Blue came on with the Cajuns leading only 5-4 after a wild inning and a half, and the Bulldogs had the tying run at second base. He recorded a third out to end that inning, and proceeded to retire 16 of the 21 Tech batters he faced.

"That felt great," said Blue, who had knee surgery last May and missed all of the Cajuns' fall season. "I thought I'd be redshirted, but coach gave me an opportunity and I was just going on adrenaline."

The Cajuns got five first-inning runs off Tech starter Andrew Lassere (0-1), including a two-run single by Dallas Morris and a two-run double by Micah Cockrell. Tech got it to 5-4 with two runs in each of the first two innings off Glass, but didn't score again until Ryan Hamilton's infield grounder scored Jonathan Yerby in the seventh inning.

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Rough weekend puts Tech at .500 UL wins all three games

LOUISIANA La. — Louisiana took a pair of games from Louisiana Tech on Saturday afternoon to complete a three-game sweep of the Bulldogs.

The Cajuns (3-0) won Saturday's first game 9-3 before taking the nightcap 10-5 over the Bulldogs (3-3).

The Bulldogs will now return home for 11 straight contests beginning with the home opener against Arkansas at 6:30 p.m. Friday.

Austin Faught (1-0) threw six strong innings for UL-Lafayette, allowing just one run on five hits with five strikeouts to give the Cajuns a victory in game one of the doubleheader.

Tech used four pitchers as Mitch Tucker (0-1) suffered the loss after lasting 2 1/3 innings as the Cajuns pushed five runs across against the senior helped by an error that led to a pair of the runs being unearned.

Gil Laird accounted for Tech's first run of the series with a long solo home run in the fifth inning.

The Bulldogs turned a triple play in the fourth inning when Brandon Haygood snared a liner up the middle before stepping on second base and then doubled the runner off first base for the triple play.

The Bulldogs scored two runs in the top of the ninth inning with two outs on an RBI single by pinch hitter Dusty Bastion, and another run scored when Adam Cobb reached on an error.

Tech got three hits from Haygood in the game but could not get the key hit as the Bulldogs left nine men on base despite eight hits and drawing two walks.

Freshman Aaron Lorio was impressive by throwing 1 1/3 scoreless innings in relief.

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