“I think Gunner is a better matchup for the next two teams,” Robichaux said when asked about his decision to start Lee against Princeton. “And I think Nick matches up good against the first team.
“The other two teams run a lot. (Sam Houston) Coach (Matt) Deggs (UL’s former hitting coach) likes to try to spin the game out of control; he likes to speed the game up on you. You have to have someone who can slow the game down when you face him.”
The cool-and-calm Leger, a sophomore with Regional and Super Regional starting experience last season, can do that.
Robichaux’s point in suggesting he knows so little about his opponent, though, perhaps is made to emphasize just how much he wants his own club to focus on itself.
And he does have his Cajuns doing that.
Cajuns assistant coach Daniel Freeman, relief pitcher Eric Carter said Thursday, “pulls us aside before the game and talks to us about strengths that (opponents) have, and guys who are big threats.”
But the way the Cajuns do things, especially with their pitchers, that’s about the extent of the scouting report he’ll get.
“Pitching’s pitching,” Carter said. “You attack guys with strikes, and you get ahead, and you just try to get guys out the same way. I don’t personally change my approach for a team that I play.”
Senior catcher Nick Thurman will get a breakdown on Princeton, too, perhaps more in-depth than those his teammates receive.
That includes some current stats and info on the approach at the plate of individual batters. But he considers that a mere guide, and won’t read too much into any of it.
Thurman doesn’t always know where the report is coming from, he suggested, so he’d much rather trust his own instincts.
“The only thing I know for a fact is that they don’t know about the heat,” Thurman said of the Tigers from up north.
“Dealing with this heat is different. Us practicing in it all day, every day, for however long, we’re kind of used to it by now and it’s kind of an advantage. We know what the field’s gonna be like, so we’re gonna be prepared — and other teams are going to have to make the adjustment on the fly.”
Not prejudging anything is just the way Robichaux wants it.
“I’ve never been real big on charts,” he said.
“I trust my eyes. I trust 30 years of experience. Our pitching system is built on the previous pitch, not our opponent.”
Robichaux does permit Freeman to prep his pitchers with the basics: “Do they hit-and-run? Do they run a lot? Who their power guys are. Who their ‘guy’ is. Who makes them go.”
“All that I do trust,” the Cajun coach said. “And he does relay that information out to the pitching staff. But after that it’s about executing the pitch and working off of what you just saw (the hitter) do.”
Robichaux cares more about this last swing, not the current foe.
And as someone who taken his team to three straight prior Regionals, and back-to-back Super Regionals, not to mention the 2000 College World Series and various other postseason trips, he doesn’t want his players spending this week in particular stressing over too much of anything.
“I don’t want them carrying stuff around, reading all week and worrying about somebody else,” he said.
Thurman understands.
“He’s taught me to make adjustments mid-game,” the Cajun catcher said, “so if I see something … I’ll make the adjustment myself.”
Robichaux also does not want his Cajuns thinking ahead.
Designated hitter Brenn Conrad, for one, has bought into that.
“I don’t even care who else is in the tournament,” Conrad said. “All I know is we have Princeton first.”
Actually, he knows a smidge more than that.
“They might come over here and outsmart us on the base paths,” Conrad joked
Beyond the Ivy League reference, Conrad isn’t sure which team will favor more from all the uncertainty.
“They don’t know how to pitch to us,” he said. “They’ve probably never even heard of us.
“We’re so far down south; they don’t come down and play down here. So it’s gonna be a weird (game). They don’t know what we have; we don’t know what they have.”
With all that in mind, Robichaux really just wants his Cajuns to focus on the task at hand.
UL has won 10 straight, including all four games last week while claiming its third straight Sun Belt Conference Tournament.
The Cajuns also are the only team not from a Power 5 conference that is hosting a Regional this year.
But all of that will mean nothing come Friday night.
“We feel like we’re playing good baseball at the right time,” Robichaux said. “But you’ve got to let last week go. What we did last week is not gonna help is this week, so we’ve got to flip our mindset.”
NCAA LAFAYETTE REGIONAL
WHAT: 64-team NCAA Tournament, first round; four-team Regional is double-elimination
WHERE: M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field (3,755)
TV/OTHER: No TV; Internet coverage on ESPN 3 with Brett Dolan (play-by-play) and Tom Holliday (commentary)
GAME 1
No. 2 seed ARIZONA (38-20) vs. No. 3 seed SAM HOUSTON STATE (41-20)
WHEN: 1 p.m. (central) Friday
GAME 2
No. 1 seed UL (41-19) vs. No. 4 seed Princeton (24-19)
WHEN: 7 p.m. (central) Friday
RADIO: KPEL 96.5 FM with Jay Walker
PITCHING MATCHUP: UL RHP Nick Lee (7-1, 3.18 ERA) vs. RHP Chad Powers (6-3, 2.07)
ABOUT THE OPPONENT: Princeton beat Yale 2-1 in a best-of-three series, winning the last two games, to win the Ivy League Championship Series. … Leading hitters: Jesper Horsted (.326), Danny Hoy (.317, five home runs), Nick Hernandez (32 RBI). … One of the Tigers’ catchers is senior Andrew Christie, son of New Jersey Governor and former Presidential candidate Chris Christie. … To get to Louisiana, Princeton flew for the first time on a road trip this season.
ABOUT THE CAJUNS: UL went 4-0 to win the Sun Belt Conference Tournament, beating Georgia Southern 5-0 in Sunday’s title game. … The No. 14 Ragin’ Cajuns, also Sun Belt regular-season co-champs, have won 10 straight. … Leading hitters: Kyle Clement (.355), Alex Pinero (.305), Brenn Conrad (41 RBI), Joe Robbins (nine homers). … UL and Princeton have never previously played. … The Cajuns are 7-0 all-time vs. Ivy League schools (4-0 vs. Dartmouth, all in 1991; 3-0 vs. Harvard, two in 2004 and one in 2005)
