Baseball: Cajuns bet on Robbins to squeeze and it pays

Tim Buckley, The Advertiser, April 15, 2017

Click here for video and photo gallery of Arkansas State game 3.    Scroll down below article for digital photo gallery. 

With runners on the corners and one out in the bottom of the ninth inning for UL, the game tied, and Joe Robbins at the plate, everyone in the park knew what probably was coming.

Or should have.

It’s something Tony Robichaux-coached teams love to do.

Yet, Arkansas State could do little about it as Robbins executed a perfect suicide squeeze bunt anyway, scoring Ishmael Edwards to give the Ragin’ Cajuns a 3-2 win Saturday on M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field at Russo Park.

“It’s kind of un-defensible play if you’ve got a good bunter and they’re not pitching out,” Robichaux said.

“They were holding back for the double-play, so it left the first baseman holding. That gave us a little better lane there.”

Robichaux, whose Cajuns also beat Appalachian State earlier this season when Handsome Monica executed a suicide squeeze, often calls such plays.

But it was UL hitting coach/third-base coach Jeremy Talbot who called this one.

“I think he did the right thing,” Robichaux said. “He’s got 100 percent of my commitment whenever he wants to make a call.

“We had a good bunter up there. We had a good playing surface to bunt. The only thing you take a chance on is that he pops the bunt up, or they do a pitchout — and if they do you’re out.

“But you know what? If you don’t throw your hand down, you’re not gonna win,” Robichaux added. “So sometimes you just have to gamble and go with it. He gambled, and it worked out.”

Betting on Robbins to make the bunt was a sound decision.

And the senior third baseman had little doubt it would pay.

“Most of the time when you put on a suicide squeeze, especially with a guy with Izzy’s (Edwards’) speed on third base,” Robbins said, “an executed bunt is gonna get him in there a hundred percent.”

Winning pitcher Wyatt Marks, for one, sure liked the odds.

He played things a bit safe nonetheless, then joined the celebration as teammates poured of the dugout and chased Robbins to squirt him with their water bottles.

“I was trying to stay focused just in case something did happen and we didn’t get it,” he said, “but it worked out and it was all excitement from there.”

   WHAT HAPPENED

Brenn Conrad’s double in the second inning scored Kennon Fontenot and Alex Pinero, but Arkansas State responded with two runs of its own in the third inning.

Cajuns starter Hogan Harris retired the second in order in the first and second, got out of a two-out bases-loaded jam in the fourth, put the side down in order again in the fifth and the sixth.

UL squandered some opportunities as designated hitter Steven Sensley was thrown out at the plate trying to steal in the fourth, two runners were stranded in the fifth and it left the bases loaded during a sixth inning in which Sensley also was thrown out trying to score from third on an intentional-walk wild pitch.

But Marks (2-1) relieved Harris in the seventh and promptly retired the side in order, including two strikeouts.

The junior from St. Thomas More High put down the side in order again in the eighth, including two strikeouts, and struck out the side in order in the ninth to set up Robbins’ winner.

   PLAYERS OF THE GAME

Harris had five scoreless innings among the six he worked, and Marks followed with 3.0 perfect relief innings that included seven strikeouts.

   WHAT IT MEANS

UL, which improved to 21-14-1, swept a Sun Belt Conference series for the first time in five tries this season.

   WHAT’S NEXT

In a pair of back-to-back non-conference midweek games UL visits Tulane on Tuesday night, then plays host to Southeastern Louisiana on Wednesday night.

The Tulane game originally was scheduled to be played in Lafayette, then was changed to New Orleans.

   LAGNIAPPE

Edwards extended his hitting streak to 11 straight games with a single in the third.