Baseball: Robichaux delivers gutty performance as UL�s ace

Chad Washington, The Advertiser, June 8, 2014

UL’s Austin Robichaux was the winning pitcher for the Cajuns over Ole Miss on Saturday. (Photo: Leslie Westbrook/The Advertiser )

It was the biggest moment in Austin Robichaux’s life. But for the next 10 hours, he had to pretend it wasn’t.

The euphoria of being drafted in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft by the Los Angeles Angels earlier in the day was a career moment for the UL junior right-hander. But he and his dad, UL head coach Tony Robichaux, had to keep that happiness bottled up so Austin can concentrate on getting the Ragin’ Cajuns one step closer to the College World Series.

So after being selected by the Angels in the 18th round (539th overall), Austin Robichaux pitched seven strong innings to help UL beat Ole Miss 9-5 in the first game of their NCAA Super Regional series on Saturday night.

“I told this to Austin when the draft started, is that your team needs you to believe that you really don’t care about the draft,” Tony said. “What you care about is getting this team to Omaha. You want to get so many guys in that clubhouse that aren’t going to get drafted, that you know that you want to get them to the College World Series. You got the rest of your life to play baseball. Right now, you got two days to get them to Omaha.”

Austin did get off to a rocky start as the Rebels got three runs off of three hits in the second inning to take a 3-0 lead. But while his teammates put up five runs in the third inning to put UL up 5-3, Robichaux gave up only three hits and two runs the next five innings.

“I thought Austin Robichaux, after maybe struggling in the first couple of innings, really found himself and got deep into the game, which is what you want from your ace,” Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco said.

Austin knew that his teammates would pick him up after his rough start.

“There’s no other team I rather pitch for than these guys,” Austin said. “They deserve all the credit today. I don’t think I had my best stuff, but that’s the great thing about this team. I can pitch without my best stuff and they can still come back and win the game.”

Ole Miss presented a small challenge to Robichaux because the Rebels are not only a good hitting team, but do it from the left side of the plate. Five batters in the Rebel lineup hit left-handed, which presented a tough matchup. But Austin kept his poise and – along with the help of 4,278 of his friends in vermilion and white – was able to keep the Ole Miss bats at bay.

“Austin really had to get his changeup going because he had so many lefties in the lineup,” Tony said. “But these hitters have been good all year and again, I have to give credit to our crowd. Our crowd really, really helped us and got us some adrenaline.”

Although he and his teammates are focused on Sunday’s game and trying to lock down the program’s first CWS berth in 14 years, Austin did finally get to reflect on the thrill of being drafted into the major leagues, especially since he was drafted to the same team with his teammate, outfielder Caleb Adams.

“It’s an honor and a privilege to get drafted. Not many people get to experience that,” Austin said. “I was also lucky enough to get drafted to the same team as Caleb. Maybe I’ll get to extend my career with him a little bit longer.”