Baseball: Another NCAA Regional title proves elusive for the Cajuns

Tim Buckley, The Advertiser, June 7, 2016

 

Ragin’ Cajun players appear worried as the Arizona Wildcats hold onto the lead in the eighth inning of an eventual win over UL at the NCAA Lafayette Regional on Monday.(Photo: LEE CELANO/THE ADVERTISER)

 

VIDEO: 2016 NCAA Lafayette Regional post-tournament press conference

 

In the immediate aftermath of UL being ousted from the NCAA Lafayette Regional with back-to-back losses Monday to Arizona, pitching seemed to be foremost on the mind of Ragin’ Cajuns coach Tony Robichaux.

The other team’s, mostly.

UL had a tough time getting to Wildcats ace Nathan Bannister in Monday afternoon’s game, scoring two of its three runs in a 6-3 loss only once Bannister had exited after going 7.0 innings in a Regional start for the second time — and throwing almost 200 pitches — in fewer than 72 hours.

Getting the save — and getting Arizona out of a bases-loaded jam in the eighth inning — in the afternoon game was Kevin Ginkel, who came back out to start and go 5.2 innings in Monday night’s 3-1 Regional title-game win.

Ginkel was relieved Monday night by lefty Cameron Ming, who allowed just one hit in 3.1 scoreless innings for the save in a combined five-hitter.

The Wildcat pitching impressed Robichaux, whose own two starters — Evan Guillory and Wyatt Marks — both were unable to go more than two innings Monday, with Guillory leaving the afternoon game with no outs in the first and Marks lasting 2.0 in the evening.

“Our biggest goal (Monday night) was to hopefully try to get into the bullpen. We didn’t do that,” Robichaux said. “We knew they had the good lefty (Ming) waiting. We knew he was really not a situational lefty.

“We really anticipated him (Ming) starting the game. And they brought back the righty (Ginkel). He was good. He climbed up to 94, 95 (miles per hour) sometimes. Mixed real well. Located real well. Then we knew the lefty was gonna probably come in sooner or later. And he’s good too.

“Credit their guys,” the Cajun coach added. “They didn’t need a lot of runs. They only needed a couple, the way they pitched.”

That was the narrow focus for Robichaux late Monday night.

The bigger-picture perspective for the 43-21 Cajuns is perhaps best encapsulated by what they did before going 2-2 in the Regional, beating Princeton 5-3 and Arizona 10-3 before losing their next two to Arizona.

Prior to Monday, UL had won 12 straight.

A late-season surge allowed them to climb out of a deep hole and share the Sun Belt Conference championship with South Alabama, which was something for UL to hang its hat on heading into the Sun Belt Tournament.

“A championship means a lot to anybody, at any time,” Guillory said before the league tourney.

“It just shows that we are not quitters, by any means,” designated hitter Brenn Conrad added then. “Everybody knows, we know, we struggled toward the beginning of the season. And we started to get on a roll toward the end.”

The fact the Cajuns had to share the conference championship with the Jaguars even though UL won its regular-season series with South Alabama 3-2 — Sun Belt rules — didn’t seem to bother Robichaux much at all.

“Whether you’re a co-champ, or whatever the case may be,” he said, “at the end of the day it’s hard to be a champ.”

The Cajuns went on to be outright champs in the Sun Belt Tournament, going 4-0 in San Marcos, Texas, and beating Georgia Southern 5-0 in the title game for their third straight conference tourney championship.

They won their fourth straight Regional bid as well.

And although they did not ultimately win the last three titles they wanted — Regional, Super Regional, national — they did share one (Sun Belt regular season) and claim another (Sun Belt Tournament).

“A lot of guys can go through their whole career and never be a champion, man,” Robichaux, whose Cajuns also won the 2014 Lafayette Regional and the 2015 Houston Regional, said after beating UL Monroe on the last day of the 2016 season to share the SBC title with South Alabama. “It’s an elusive thing.”

At multiple levels, it is.

The Cajuns were reminded of just that Monday, the hard way.