2005: Treasure Trove of NINE Pitchers Get the Job Done.
Robichaux: "Those guys haven't thrown and they got into some trouble, but they minimized the damage. Ideally, we wanted to put them in some situations, and they responded."
On the gone-but-not-forgotten television show "The A-Team," George Peppard's standard and most famous line was, "I love it when a plan comes together."
Tony Robichaux may not remember that show, and he didn't say anything like that Sunday afternoon. But much like Peppard's always did, his plan came together, and because it did the University of Louisiana baseball team won its sixth straight.
Robichaux put the "C-Team" on the field for Sunday's series finale against Texas-Pan American, and the "C" only partially stood for "Cajuns." But that squad fought its way to a 5-3 victory, and a dramatic one with Jonathan Lucroy's seventh-inning two-run double snapping a 3-3 tie.
The 14th-ranked Cajuns (29-6) used nine different pitchers, one in each inning. Three of them made their first appearance of the season, two others had pitched one inning or less, and Jeff Martinez and Jonathan Cockrell had combined for only five appearances.
It didn't stop there. Five position players made their first start of the season, and regulars John McCarthy, John Coker, Josh Landry and Dallas Morris were out of the lineup for the first time this year.
And it worked.
"These guys do what everybody else does all year," Robichaux said. "They're there for the 6 a.m. weightlifting and they're out there working every day. They'll go home feeling better about themselves, and this put us one step better as a team."
The ninesome on the mound bent but never broke, with seven of them throwing shutout innings. None walked a batter and none gave up more than two hits while combining for nine strikeouts.
"We stayed away from the big inning," Robichaux said. "We met as a staff before the game, and we said we wanted to succeed collectively, not as individuals. If everybody pitched according to our system, I believed we would win, but if one person didn't we'd probably lose.
"Those guys haven't thrown and they got into some trouble, but they minimized the damage. Ideally, we wanted to put them in some situations, and they responded."
UTPA (10-27) got a run in the fourth off Jeremy Whipple on two singles and two hit batsmen, but Whipple struck out two batters with the bases loaded and got an inning-ending ground ball. In the sixth, the Broncs tallied two more to tie the game 3-3 on Cesar Pena's two-run double before Franco Cardinale recorded two outs to end that threat.
Starter Jered Salazar and second-inning pitcher Buddy Glass were the only hurlers who had seen anything resembling regular action this year. Whipple, Justin Boyette and eventual winner Jeremy Collins (1-0) took the mound for the first time, and Chris Johns and save-earner Jonathan Cottrell made only their second appearance.
Lucroy caught eight of the nine (Justin Morgan caught Cottrell in the ninth), but his biggest contribution came in the bottom of the seventh after Micah Cockrell reached on a one-out error and Phillip Hawke singled.
The Broncs relieved lefthander Ryne Foster (0-5) and brought on sidewheeling righthander Tim Haines, and Lucroy greeted him with a double down the first-base line that scored the winning runs.
"It's tough to hit a sidearm righty like that," Lucroy said, "but I felt co__ortable because I saw him two at-bats yesterday. He left one up and outside and I was able to put it down the line."
Lucroy had collected three hits off Foster in the first five innings, including a first-inning double that scored Hawke.
"He's been doing that all year for us," Robichaux said of Lucroy's timely hit. "He's just a pure hitter, and he's getting hits in key situations. When a freshman steps up and does what he did today, it's huge for your club."
Cody Martin's infield grounder plated Leonard Guerrero in the second and Alex Preciado's RBI single scored Hawke in the third for a 3-0 lead prior to the Bronc rally.
The Cajuns had only nine hits - four from new lineup faces Ray Dees, Devon Bourque and Preciado - and won for only the third time this year when being out-hit by their opponent (11-9).
"The key was they didn't fall all over themselves," Robichaux said. "They had good at-bats and made all the defensive plays. They could've set back and played scared with the crowd all around, but they didn't. This was good for our entire club."
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Re: 2005: Treasure Trove of nine Pitchers Get the Job Done.
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