HAMMOND - The scheduling may be the same as one week ago, but University of Louisiana baseball coach Tony Robichaux says that it's radically different.

The Ragin' Cajuns, following a lengthy trip to win its fourth tournament title of the season over the past weekend, will travel tonight to take on the Lions of Southeastern La. in a 6:30 p.m. contest at SLU's Alumni Field.

The Cajuns (17-2), ranked 17th by one national poll and 19th by two others, made it four tourney titles by sweeping past Harvard, St. John's and host Minnesota last Friday through Sunday in the Metrodome Classic in Minneapolis, Minn.

One week earlier, UL won the title at the prestigious First Hawai'i Trust Rainbow Tournament in Honolulu, and looked lethargic in a 4-3 loss to McNeese State last Wednesday.

"From the Hawai'i tournament, you're talking about a 13-hour travel day with 10 of them in the air through four time zones," Robichaux said. "Last weekend, it was an hour and 45 minutes two times, and we weren't playing in 90-degree heat on turf. Compared to that, this trip felt like nothing, so this shouldn't have any residual effect."

The Cajuns bounced back from the McNeese loss, only their second of the year, with an easy 14-2 win over a Harvard team opening its season in the Metrodome. They followed that with rally wins over Minnesota (3-2, 10 innings) and St. John's (3-1), and take a three-game win streak and a 7-1 away-from-home record into today's meeting with the Lions (8-10).

The rest of the story

Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com