Cajuns Top Southeastern for Fifth Straight Win
Following Tuesday's 1-0 win over Tulane, Louisiana baseball coach Tony Robichaux said he expected his team to hit the ball against Southeastern Louisiana.
He was right.
The Cajuns pounded out 14 hits, seven for extra bases, en route to a 9-2 win over the Lions Wednesday night at M. L. "Tigue" Moore Field at Russo Park.
Brad Antchak, Steven Sensley and Kennon Fontenot led the attack with three hits each, with Sensley having a double and a homer while Antchak and Fontenot each had a pair of doubles, while Ishmael Edwards and Todd Lott also had two hits each.
Jack Burk started the game for the Cajuns, but was pulled as a precautionary measure after feeling tightness in his forearm after two innings. Redshirt freshman Jacob Norman (1-0) was stellar in relief, pitching 4.2 shutout innings of baseball to get his first career win.
"Jack kind of hyperextended his forearm making that barehanded play against LSU last week," head coach Tony Robichaux said. "He said he felt okay warming up except for a little tightness but when it was still tight after the second inning, we told him to sit down. There's no way I'm going to risk a kid's arm over a baseball game. Jacob was just outstanding and he really stepped up for us tonight."
Norman allowed four hits, with a pair of walks and six strikeouts, giving way to Wyatt Marks after the Lions loaded the bases with two hits and a walk. Marks left them loaded, striking out Carson Crites to end the threat. Marks struck out seven in 2.1 innings, but gave up two runs on two hits. He walked three and hit a pair of batters.
Derek Mount (1-1) the first of seven Southeastern pitchers, took the loss after allowing eight hits and four runs over 2.1 innings of work. The run for Southeastern in the eighth broke a string of 22.1 consecutive scoreless innings by the Cajuns' pitching staff.
Louisiana (23-14-1) got on the board in the first inning when Ishmael Edwards led off with a double and scored on Joe Robbins' sacrifice fly. The double by Edwards increased his hitting streak to 13 games. Sensley followed with an opposite field shot to left, his fifth homer of the year for an early 2-0 lead. The Cajuns added a run in the second when Hunter Kasuls, Edwards and Antchak had consecutive two out singles and made it 4-0 on Todd Lott's RBI single in the third.
The Cajuns tacked on a pair of unearned runs in the sixth inning when Alex Pinero reached on a two base error, was sacrificed to third and scored on Antchak's double. Antchak moved to third and scored on a pair of wild pitches for the 6-0 lead.
Southeastern (22-14) got a run without a hit in the eighth on a pair of hit batsmen and a pair of walks but the Cajuns put the game away in the bottom of the inning on a double by Antchak, an RBI double by Sensley and RBI singles by Fontenot and Lott. The Lions got their final run in the ninth on a pinch hit double by Nate Hunter.
The Cajuns will now head to Little Rock for a three game Sun Belt series at Gary Hogan Field. Game times are scheduled for 6:00 Friday, 2:00 Saturday and 1:00 Sunday. All three games can be heard on 96.5 KPEL-FM.