Baseball: Cajuns taking Sam Houston seriously

Tim Buckley, The Advertiser, May 31, 2013

BATON ROUGE — They’re saying the right things about not overlooking tonight’s NCAA Regional opponent, Sam Houston State.

But there is no doubt whom the Ragin’ Cajuns will be thinking about seeing most as they head to LSU’s Alex Box Stadium here.

“I like the idea we’re getting another crack at (LSU),” centerfielder Seth Harrison said after UL received its bid to the four-team, double-elimination Baton Rouge Regional last Monday. “We saw them earlier in the year, and it didn’t turn out the way we wanted it to.

“But we’re a different ball club,” Harrison added in comparison to LSU’s 11-2 win over UL on Feb. 26 at M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field. “We’ve grown a lot.”

It’s actually possible that at-large UL of the Sun Belt Conference never sees SEC Tournament-champion LSU before the Regional is done. Two straight Cajun losses and a Tiger win over SWAC Tournament-winner Jackson State in its Regional opener today would take care of that.

But it’s also clear the Cajuns are fully planning on a 7 p.m. Saturday winner’s-bracket game against LSU, which would require a UL win over Southland Conference regular-season champ SHSU tonight and a Tiger victory over Jackson State this afternoon.

“It’s gonna come down to pitching, and just who can get the job done,” designated hitter Caleb Adams said with reference to a possible meeting of the aces between UL’s Austin Robichaux (8-2, 3.20 ERA) and LSU’s Aaron Nola (10-0, 1.94) on Saturday night.

“We know the odds are stacked against us. That’s something we go into it knowing,” Adams added. “I mean, (the Tigers) are (the) No. 4 (seed) in the nation. … But our focus is on Sam Houston. That’s the first game, and we’ve got to take care of that before we can think about anything else.”

UL went 7-1 against Southland Conference teams this year, taking two each from Northwestern State, Southeastern Louisiana and McNeese State and splitting with Nicholls State.

But the Cajuns didn’t face Huntsville, Texas-based Sam Houston State.

“I haven’t heard too much about ’em,” UL catcher Michael Strentz said of the Bearkats, “but we’re just gonna do our thing, and work our way to the top.”

Sam Houston State (37-20) is in its second straight NCAA Regional and has won postseason bids five of the last seven years.

The Bearkats are 8-3 against 2013 NCAA Tournament teams, including a three-game mid-May sweep of Southland Tournament-winner Central Arkansas, a 2-0 record vs. Conference-USA regular season- and tournament-champ Rice, a split with Texas A&M, a single-game win at Texas-San Antonio and a 1-2 series vs. UConn.

“It’s important to focus on Sam Houston first,” right-fielder Dex Kjerstad said, “and that we get that game.”

If they do, and if LSU today, the Cajuns will get the opponent the really want now.

“We came into that game a little bit too amped up, a little too pumped up, playing LSU at home for the first time in (11) years,” Adams said.

“Everybody was just so wound up, because it was LSU and it was a big rival or whatnot. And all the fans got into it,” Strentz added. “It was a big ordeal, and I think everybody just pressed, and they weren’t calm. That’s what we have to go do over there, is just be calm and play our game, and we can win it.”

Strentz thinks the Cajuns are “100 percent” better than when they first saw the Tigers.

He’s not alone.

“We were all kind of young, in a way, as far as experience here,” Kjerstad said of the February loss.

“We’ve grown a lot since then, and we definitely have a better approach. We’re just more tuned and seasoned than we were then.”

Now, the 41-18 Cajuns lead the nation in homers with 72.

“It was early in the season, so as the season’s gone on, we’ve grown, we’ve overcome some stuff,” Harrison said of a team still thin on pitching. “We’ve come together more … and we’re just all ready to compete and ready to get to LSU and the other teams in the Regional.”

“It was early in the year. We were still trying to find our identity,” Adams added. “I think we found that now, and we’re going to go in to face them – if that happens – a little bit more calm and relaxed and ready to go. But we’ve got to get through Sam Houston first, and that’s where our focus is.”

That identity?

“We give everything we have, every pitch, every out, every play,” first baseman Jace Conrad said.

“We’re gonna play hard. We’re gonna hit. We’re gonna go after anybody and everybody, whoever comes out there,” Adams added. “Same approach toward anyone. We’re not gonna change our approach or the way we prepare for anyone. We’re just gonna go out there and get after it every day, against whoever they throw at us.”

If it winds up being Nola on Saturday, that could mean a tall task for Robichaux as the sophomore gets his second chance at the Tigers in two years.

The Notre Dame High product yielded two homers in the first three innings of an eventual 5-0 loss at LSU a season ago.

“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think about it,” Robichaux said. “They roughed me up a lot last year, and I’d definitely like to get my second chance.”

Robichaux’s father and coach, Tony Robichaux, would love to see that too.

But first the Cajuns, who fell 16-8 to Florida Atlantic in last Sunday’s Sun Belt Tournament title game, must deal with SHSU.

“The first thing we have to do,” he said, “is not look ahead.”

Yet it’s so hard not to, as he too feels the Cajuns now are so much better than when LSU visited three months ago.

The reason, Tony Robichaux believes, is they’re a toughened team, especially after facing three Sun Belt teams – Troy, South Alabama and FAU – that also qualified for the NCAA tourney.

They did so from a conference with the nation’s fifth-best RPI behind only the ACC, SEC, Pac-12 and Big 12.

“The biggest thing is we saw of a lot of better, good pitching … throughout the rest of the year,” said Robichaux, whose club starts Regional play with a No. 22 RPI. “The Sun Belt was so much better this year (than last). I think it’s better prepared us than we were earlier in the year.

“But, look, let’s not look at any other thing except this (LSU) is a very good baseball team. LSU’s very good,” he added. “They’re very good head-to-toe, and they’re in their yard. So it’s going to take some very good baseball to be able to get through this thing. … Because you’re not going to go through there playing like we did (last Sunday).”