Baseball: Robichaux Shuts Down Warhawks In Sun Belt Opener, 4-1 – Games on Sat & Sun Start at 1:00

MONROE, La. – Junior starter Austin Robichaux posted his third consecutive quality start leading the sixth-ranked Ragin’ Cajuns baseball team to a 4-1 win in the Sun Belt Conference opener against ULM on Friday night at Warhawk Field.

Robichaux threw all nine innings for his second complete game of the season and sixth of his career to move to 3-1. The Crowley, La. native struck out 10 in the outing while limiting the Warhawks (7-12, 0-1 SBC) to one run on four hits with two walks.

“Austin did a great job of shifting gears,” head coach Tony Robichaux said. “That’s what a great pitcher does. I think we are better than we showed tonight, but we have won in a lot of different ways this year. We have been getting good pitching and hitting and that’s help us get to where we are right now.”

The Cajuns (15-2, 1-0 SBC) notched 10-plus hits for the ninth time this season outhitting ULM  10-3 with seven of the nine starters registering a hit.

Shortstop Blake Trahan led the way going 2-for-5 to extend his hit streak to a team-best seven games. Jace Conrad also had two hits in the contest, while Caleb Adams extended his streak of reaching base safely to 11 games.

Warhawks starter Chris Hunt fell to 1-1 on the year after giving up three runs on eight hits in 5.1 innings with five strikeouts and two walks.

Justin Stawychny led ULM offensively going 2-for-4 at the plate with a double, triple and a run driven in.

The Warhawks jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first on a RBI triple by Stawychny.

First baseman Chase Compton evened the contest in the top of the second singling to left to score Adams from third.

Louisiana grabbed the lead in the top of the third on a two-run double to left by Tyler Girouard to make the score 3-1 Cajuns.

After four scoreless innings, the Ragin’ Cajuns added an insurance run in the top of the eighth on a bases-load sacrifice fly to left by Compton scoring Adams again from third. Adams led the inning off with a walk and then moved to third after singles by Conrad and Ryan Leonards.

The win is the fifth straight for the Cajuns this season and the seventh consecutive in the ULM series. Louisiana has also won five straight regular season Sun Belt games.

The Cajuns and Warhawks are back in action tomorrow at 1 p.m. as the game time was moved up to avoid forecasted rain. The Ragin’ Cajuns will be going for their sixth straight series win dating back to the sweep of ULM last season.

The series finale is also slated for 1 p.m. on Sunday. Fans can catch both of the games on News Talk 96.5 KPEL-FM with Steve Peloquin making the call.

— Ragin’ Cajuns —