Louisiana Baseball Midweek Update Wednesday, Feb
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Louisiana Baseball Midweek Update Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2012 at Southeastern Louisiana Alumni Field (2,500) | Hammond, La. | 6 p.m. | ESPN1420-AM Sun Belt Champions (1992, 1994, 1997, 2005, 2007, 2010) NCAA Regionals (1988, 1990-92, 1997-2000, 2002, 2005, 2007, 2010) NCAA Super Regionals (1999, 2000) College World Series (2000) PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUPS LOUISIANA SOUTHEASTERN LOUISIANA So., RHP Caleb Kellogg vs. Jr., RHP Kaleb Manuel (0-0, 0.00 ERA) (0-0, 0.00 ERA) Almost Home: The Ragin’ Cajuns close out a season-opening, four-game road swing STATISTICAL COMPARISON on Wednesday in Hammond facing Southeastern Louisiana at Alumni Field. Louisiana opens the CATEGORY LOUISIANA SLU home portion of the 2012 schedule Friday-Sunday, Feb. 24-26 hosting Towson at “The Tigue”. Overall Record 1-2 3-0 Quick Reset: Louisiana returned home Monday night from the CenturyLink Bobcat Invitational in San Marcos, Texas. The return was a day later than expected as rain showers in the Conference Record 0-0 0-0 San Marcos area delayed the start of the tournament until Saturday. Joe Zimmermann gave the Batting Average .263 .265 Cajuns a strong start on the mound vs. Wichita State on Saturday, tossing five scoreless innings of At Bats 99 83 three-hit baseball and Daniel Nichols provided the winning run in the bottom of the eighth in a 1-0 Runs Scored 11 16 victory. On Sunday, Santa Clara scored six runs in the eighth inning to spoil a quality start by Hits 26 22 Jordan Nicholson (6.0 IP, 2 R, 6K). Texas State out-hit the Cajuns 15-10 on Monday, scored in all Doubles 5 7 but two innings to post a 9-5 victory spoiling the debut of junior college transfer Chris Griffitt. The Bobcats used a three-run outburst in the sixth inning to break open a 4-2 contest. Triples 0 0 Home Runs 1 0 Time to End This Streak: The Ragin’ Cajuns are seeking to end a seven-game losing streak to Southeastern Louisiana – the longest losing streak to the Lions in the all-time Total Bases 34 29 series. The Cajuns last win over SLU came on March 5, 2008 at “The Tigue” (W, 3-1). RBI 10 15 The SLU Series (UL leads 57-44): Wednesday night the two programs meet for SB-SBA 2-of-4 5-of-8 the 102nd time. The 100th meeting took place back on March 9, 2011 at Alumni Field in Slugging Percentage .343 .349 Hammond. UL is 13-9 vs. SLU under Tony Robichaux. SLU has won seven of the last 11 On-Base Percentage .333 .370 meetings. Series resumed in 1999 after a 10-season hiatus from 1989-1998. The two teams will Walks 10 10 complete the home-and-home series on Tuesday, April 3 at “The Tigue”. Hit by Pitch 1 5 Caleb Gets First Career Start: Sophomore pitcher Caleb Kellogg makes his first Strikeouts (Batting) 24 13 career start for Louisiana in Wednesday’s meeting with SLU. Kellogg garnered 19 relief Innings Pitched 25.0 27.0 appearances as a freshman last season and led the team with five saves. Runs Allowed 17 8 A Capable Replacement: Sophomore Ryan Leonards took over at shortstop last weekend for the program’s all-time assists leader Greg Fontenot. Leonards was busy and took Earned Runs Allowed 13 6 care of business collecting 15 assists. He fielded all but one of 23 chances cleanly. Team ERA 4.68 2.00 Where Did You Go Mike?: Last season’s starting catcher Michael Strentz got reps in Strikeouts (Pitching) 19 18 preseason practice in the outfield. During opening weekend in San Marcos, the sophomore out of Saves 1 1 Lafayette started all three games in left field. Errors 3 2 An All-Acadiana Infield: The Cajuns have stockpiled local talent in recent years and Fielding Percentage .974 .983 the starting infield in the season opener vs. Wichita State reflected that trend. Tyler Frederick Double Plays 3 2 (Acadiana HS – 1B), Jace Conrad (Lafayette HS – 2B), Ryan Leonards (Notre Dame HS – SS) and Tyler Girouard (Teurlings Catholic – 3B) all hail from the Acadiana area. Bullpen’s Shaky Start: UL’s bullpen surrendered eight earned runs over the final two Louisiana: Tony Robichaux (609-411-1 at UL, 18th) games at the CenutryLink Bobcat Invitational. (872-588-1 overall, 26th) Everybody Have Their Name Tag?: The Cajuns welcomed 14 newcomers (8 SLU: Jay Artigues (204-143 at SLU, 7th) freshmen, 6 JUCOs) to the 2012 squad. Louisiana lost 13 seniors plus junior center fielder (204-143 overall, 7th) Alex Fuselier off last season’s third-place Sun Belt finish. Robichaux Among Baseball’s Elite: UL head coach Tony Robichaux entered the 2012 season in the Top 25 amongst winningest active Division I baseball coaches. On Deck for Louisiana Robichaux’s 871 career victories stood 22nd on the list. FRIDAY-SUNDAY, FEB. 24-26 Robe Nearing Another Milestone: Head coach Tony Robichaux needs 28 Opponent: Towson wins to reach 900 career wins. His career record currently stands at 872-588-1. Site: Lafayette, La. | M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field Game Times: 6 p.m. | 2 p.m. | 1 p.m. Like Father, Like Son Part 2: The 2012 roster features Austin Robichaux, the youngest of head coach Tony Robichaux’s three children. Austin is the second of coach Robichaux’s children TUESDAY, FEB. 28 to play at UL (older brother Justin wore the Cajuns uniform from 2007-10). Opponent: Alcorn State Pitching Prowess: UL pitching has led the Sun Belt in ERA in nine of the last 12 Site: Lafayette, La. | M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field seasons (2000-11). Louisiana held the opposition to five runs or less 39 times in 58 games Game Time: 6 p.m. (27-12 record) during the 2011 campaign. Louisiana Quality Starts LAST 10 MEETINGS (At least 6 IP, 3 earned runs or less) Date IP H ER K Louisiana vs. Southeastern Louisiana Jordan Nicholson (2/19 vs. Santa Clara) 6.0 4 2 6 Overall Series Record: UL leads 57-44 Tony Robichaux Era: UL leads 13-9 Last 10 Meetings vs. Southeastern Louisiana 4/26/11 L, 2-6 H 3/9/11 L, 5-7 A 3/17/10 L, 4-9 H 3/3/10 L, 4-11 A 4/15/09 L, 2-9 A 2/25/09 L, 7-9 H 4/23/08 L, 4-14 A 3/5/08 W, 3-1 H 4/17/07 W, 8-2 H 2/21/07 W, 5-1 A ` LAST SEASON VS. SLU 3/9/11 – SLU 7, Louisiana 5 (Hammond) Recap: Five unearned runs allowed by Louisiana in the middle innings cost the squad a defeat. An error on a sacrifice bunt by Chris Sinclair in the fourth inning opened the door for the first two Weekend Series Tracker unearned runs increasing the Lions lead to 4-1. A Josh Cryer Series G1 G2 G3 Result double, Jordan Poirrier error and Britt Gautreaux RBI single Towson (Feb. 24-26) pushed across three more unearned runs in the fifth inning. The Southern Miss (March 9-11) La.-Monroe (March 16-18) Cajuns battled back with two-run singles by Poirrier (sixth inning) and Mike Petello (seventh inning) to trim the deficit to 7-5. UL’s Arkansas State (March 23-25) Florida Atlantic (March 30-April 1) comeback fell short as SLU reliever Stefan Lopez recorded three Western Kentucky (April 6-8) straight outs with the tying run at the plate in the ninth inning. FIU (April 13-15) South Alabama (April 20-22) LINE SCORE UALR (April 27-29) Louisiana........... 100 002 200 - 5 6 4 Troy (May 4-6) SE Louisiana........ 200 230 00X - 7 9 1 Middle Tennessee (May 11-13) W-Hymel (2-1) SV-Lopez (3) L-Zimmermann (0-2) T-2:38 A-878 La.-Monroe (May 17-19) 4/26/11 – SLU 6, Louisiana 2 (“The Tigue”) 10 or More Run Games Recap: The Southeastern Louisiana pitching tandem of Jordan Game Runs Scored Result Hymel and Jason Greenleaf held Louisiana to four hits and the Lions used a four-spot in the fifth inning to pull away for a 6-2 victory. Josh Cyer's two-out double with the bases loaded in the fifth inning broke open a 3-1 contest and Greenleaf tossed 3 1/3 innings of hitless relief in support of Hymel who gave up four hits over the first 5 2/3 innings. Matt Hicks relieved Ryland Parker with the bases loaded and one run already having crossed the plate in the fifth inning. Hicks recorded the second out of the inning by getting Jeff Harkensee to foul out. He wasn't able to retire Cryer, though, as the Lions' third baseman doubled into the left field corner clearing the base path upping the lead to 6-1. LINE SCORE SE Louisiana........ 002 040 000 - 6 8 1 Louisiana........... 000 101 000 - 2 4 0 W-Hymel (4-2) SV-Greenleaf (1) L-Parker (1-1) 10 or More Hit Games (2 Total; 0-2 record) T-2:36 A-3198 Game Base Hits Result Feb. 19 vs. Santa Clara 12 L, 5-8 Feb. 20 at Texas State 10 L, 5-9 Ragin’ Cajuns Hitting Week-by-Week Week 1 (Feb. 13-19) AVG GP-GS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI TB SLG% BB HBP SO GDP OB% SF SH SB-ATT PO A E FLD% Totals.............. .263 3-3 99 11 26 5 0 1 10 34 .343 10 1 24 2 .333 1 4 2-4 75 36 3 .974 Week 2 (Feb.