An early 4-0 lead with Kevin Ardoin on the mound has been money in the bank for Louisiana's Ragin' Cajun baseball team for most of the 2005 season.

Friday night was no exception, even though Arkansas-Little Rock refused to go away and die during the Cajuns' 9-5 win in the opener of their Sun Belt Conference weekend series.

The Trojans put the tying run on base three times in the final six innings, but Ardoin and reliever Kraig Schambough were able to pitch out of trouble and keep the Cajuns (37-8, 10-3) atop the league standings heading into today's 2:05 p.m. middle game of the series at Moore Field.

"UALR can swing it a little," said Cajun coach Tony Robichaux. "They can score runs, and we knew going in that we were going to have to pitch well all weekend."

Ardoin did just that, scattering eight hits and striking out nine in seven innings of work. UALR (18-26, 5-10) strung together four hits in the fourth inning to score two runs, got a leadoff homer from Josh ward in the fifth and added two more on two hits and an error in the eighth.

But Ardoin (9-1) got a strikeout and a popup to end the fourth-inning rally, and Schambough struck out the final two hitters in the eighth inning to preserve what at the time was an 8-5 lead. The duo finished with 13 strikeouts, with Schambough fanning four of the last five batters he faced.

"Thirteen strikeouts is way too many," said UALR coach Brian Rhees, "but you've got to give credit to the way we were pitched. He (Ardoin) is pretty special ... we had a chance to get to him a couple of times and we didn't pull the trigger, but he also made some great pitches."

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Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com