Baseball: Robichaux pleased as Cajuns take down Texas-Arlington error free

Tim Buckley, The Advertiser, April 24, 2015

 

The UL Ragin’ Cajuns celebrate a big scoring rally during Friday’s win over UTA at Tigue Moore Field.(Photo: John Rowland/The Advertiser)

 

PHOTO GALLERY: UL Baseball vs. UT-Arlington

 

With UL pounding out 11 hits, Gunner Leger in complete control and the Ragin’ Cajuns playing error-free baseball Friday night, coach Tony Robichaux was pleased.

Understandably so.

UL beat Texas-Arlington 5-0 in the first game of a three-game Sun Belt Conference series at M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field, and did so by simply doing what it is supposed to.

“Well, we pitched, we played defense, we got timely hitting,” said Robichaux, whose 26-15 Cajuns have won four straight and 11 of their last 13 overall. “It’s hard to lose when you do all three.”

Shortstop Blake Trahan was 3-for-4 at the plate with two runs scored and centerfielder Kyle Clement was 2-for-4 with two runs scored and a three RBI, including a two-run homer that made it 4-0 in the third inning.

Stefan Trosclair, Tyler Girouard and Nick Thurman each added two hits as UL handed 17-23 UT Arlington its ninth loss in its last 12 games.

Leger (5-2) and reliever Will Bacon, who pitched the final 2.0 innings, took care of the rest.

Leger went 7.0 innings with just five hits allowed, six strikeouts and no walks for the Cajuns, who recorded their second shutout of the season along with one that Evan Guillory (who will start Saturday night) and Wyatt Marks combined for March 29 at Arkansas State.

The true freshman threw 99 pitches, 69 of them for strikes, and – pitching forward instead of looking back, and going back and forth with his speed – retired the side in order in four of his seven innings.

When UTA did put runners on first and second in the sixth, Leger ended the half-inning by striking out cleanup hitter Cody Farrell.

“Early in the season, I kind of struggled just staying on the last pitch and wasn’t able to move on a little bit when they got a hit and (I) walked a guy or something,” Leger said. “That’s what he (Robichaux) has been preaching to me all year: just to move on, make the next pitch. So, it’s obviously been getting better.

“It speaks for the defense too: no errors. That kind of was our Achilles heel early in the season, as Coach Robe said. But we picked it up, and they’ve been playing unbelievable, and we’ve been swinging the bat a little bit.”

A lot, actually.

After Leger opened by putting the Mavericks down 1-2-3 on 14 pitches in the top of the first, nine of them strikes, hot-hitting Clement delivered a double to left that scored leadoff hitter Trahan and put UL up 1-0 in the first.

Girouard later singled in Clement to make it 2-0.

It stayed that way until the third, when Trahan singled and Clement drilled his home run to right. It was the fourth homer in five games for Clement, and his fifth of the season.

“Instead of Wheaties in the morning he’s got a box of confidence,” Robichaux said of Clement. “Because that’s what this game is. He thinks he can hit now. … There’s an old saying: You know, if you’ve got a broom handle in your hand, and you think you can hit, you can hit.”

Clement used some early knowledge to get to UTA starter Chad Nack, who threw a complete game, for the homer.

“When I’m feeling good I usually work the whole field,” Clement said.

“But he tried to bust me in my first at-bat, then went away, so I had a feeling he was gonna come back in next at-bat. … I was just guessing.”

Thurman made it 5-0 in the fifth by singling in Trosclair, who doubled, helping UL reach double-digit hits for the 10^th time in its last 11 games.

“Just a total team effort,” Robichaux said. “Everybody did a great job.

LAGNIAPPE: Clement now has multiple hits in four straight games and 11 of his last 13. … Trahan was named this week to the 47-man watch list for the Brooks Wallace Award, which recognizes the nation’s top college shortstop. The junior from Kinder High was a finalist for the award last year, when it went North Carolina State’s Trea Turner. LSU’s Alex Bregman won in 2013. … Trosclair extended his hitting streak to 11 straight games with a single in the third inning.

Trahan makes Wallace watch list

LUBBOCK, Texas – Junior All-American shortstop Blake Trahan was named one of 47 players on the initial watch list for the 2015 Brooks Wallace Shortstop of the Year Award, the National College Baseball Hall of Fame announced on Friday.

The award, sponsored by Mizuno, recognizes the nation’s top shortstop and will be presented during the National College Baseball Hall of Fame’s Night of Champions on June 29 in Lubbock.

Trahan, the 2015 Sun Belt Preseason Player of the Year, was a finalist for the award a year ago. This season, Trahan is hitting .375 with a team-high 57 hits, 13 doubles, 28 walks and a .492 on base percentage.

TEXAS-ARLINGTON (17-23, 8-11 Sun Belt) at UL (26-15, 11-7)

WHAT: Middle game of three-game weekend Sun Belt Conference series

WHERE: M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field

WHEN: 6 p.m. Saturday

RADIO: KPEL 96.5 FM with Jay Walker

TV: KLAF with Dave Schultz and Kevin Cantrelle

INTERNET: ESPN3

PITCHING MATCHUP: UL freshman RHP Evan Guillory (3-0, 4.22 ERA) vs. freshman LHP Brad Vasser (2-5, 4.07)