Baseball: Windham’s RBI single in the 10th gives UL win over LSU + photo gallery

Tim Buckley, The Advertiser, March 8, 2018

A starting pitcher, Colten Schmidt, who went 8.0 innings with just one run allowed. A double-squeeze bunt by Hunter Kasuls during a three-run eighth inning. A two-out, bases-loaded single from freshman Jonathan Windham to end it in the 10th.

UL had all that and more Wednesday night, and when combined it was enough for a 4-3 win over No. 13 LSU that — when asked — Ragin’ Cajuns coach Tony Robichaux conceded could change the course of his now 5-7 club’s season.

“It can,” Robichaux said after the Cajuns won in front of an announced 5,499 on M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field at renovated Russo Park.

“You’ve got to try to keep it in perspective. I mean, it’s one baseball game. But we pitched good, played good defense. We’ve got to get better with the bases loaded. … Outside of that, everybody else did their jobs and we won a close one going away.

“So sometimes you can get a little momentum, or fan the ember and try to get it to a bigger flame,” the Cajuns coach added. “So hopefully tonight will definitely help us. We’re glad we were able to get this done, especially with so many of our fans coming out in the ballpark we built here.”

More: "We have to learn how to win these," Mainieri says after 4-3 loss to UL

With the bases full in the 10th — Daniel Lahare singled through the right side and advanced to second on Zach LaFleur’s sac bunt, then moved to third after Kasuls was intentionally walked and Hayden Cantrelle walked two batters behind him — Windham delivered a line drive that dropped in front of LSU centerfielder Zach Watson and scored Lahare.

“I really needed that,” Windham — a product of Klein Collins High in Spring, Texas — said of what was just his second hit as a Cajun.

“I was going 0-for-4 (Wednesday), and I came up; Hayden (Cantrelle) was lucky enough to get on, and I told myself as soon as I got to the plate … ‘If you want greatness, you’ve got to go and get it yourself.’ ”

Windham’s walk-off winner off Austin Bain’s fastball down the middle helped UL to beat its second nationally ranked SEC team in five days, as the Cajuns also defeated then-No. 12 Vanderbilt 3-0 last Saturday at the Shriners College Classic in Houston.

More: UL blanks Vanderbilt at Shriners College Classic

But this one would not have happened if it were not for the pitching of Schmidt, who struck out five and allowed just one run over 8.0 innings.

The only run he permitted came in the first, when Lafayette High product Antoine Duplantis doubled and scored on Beau Jordan’s single.

“I think Schmidty rode some adrenaline through here,” Robichaux said. “He just pitched his rear end off, man.”

The Cajuns took their 3-1 lead in the eighth, when LSU misplayed Kasuls’ suicide bunt — allowing not only Gavin Bourgeois and but also Lahare to score on a play UL has turned to quite frequently in that situation.

Cantrelle then followed with a run-producing bloop single.

More: UL’s Robichaux says Cantrelle ‘plays the game slow’

“You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do to win,” Robichaux — whose club went into the night hitting .177, 294th among 297 teams nationally — said of the small ball.

Up by the two runs, Cajuns closer Logan Stoelke entered in the ninth and got LSU down to one last strike.

But Hunter Feduccia walked on a 3-2 count, Bryce Jordan was hit by a pitch and pinch-hitter Bain put a two-run double to right-center to tie it. Stoelke got out of the 10th as shortstop Cantrelle snared a line drive and initiated a double-play, though, and Windham produced in the bottom of the extra inning.

“We were looking around for a pinch-hitter potentially, but we had no third baseman,” said Robichaux, who started ex-Tiger O’Neal Lochridge at first and pulled him for defensive replacement Tyler Stover.

“He (Windham) had to get in there and get it done, and he got the barrel on the ball, got it to the middle of the field, and it fell,” added Robichaux, whose Cajuns play host this weekend to South Alabama in a non-conference series. “Every once in a while you get a break, and the game will pay you back. … Hopefully we will try to build on this.”

More: UL’s Lochridge says ‘the uncertainty … was the killer’

BY THE NUMBERS

Wednesday’s crowd was the third-largest in UL home history, but well off the record of 7,583 for a 1994 game against LSU and second-best 6,236 vs. LSU in 1989. … Schmidt’s 92-pitch outing to the eighth was the longest of his Cajun career. … Lahare, Bourgeois and Kasuls (2-for-4 with two RBI and one run scored) all had two hits. … At one point from the bottom of the fourth through the end of the fifth 8-of-9 batters overall including three straight Tigers and 5-of-6 Cajuns all struck out.

UP NEXT

UL opens its series with South Alabama at 6:30 p.m. Friday.

Athletic Network Footnote by Dr. Ed Dugas.
Click here for the game photo gallery by the Advertiser.