Baseball: Satriano Seals Louisiana’s Sweep of FAU

Baseball: Satriano Seals Louisiana’s Sweep of FAU

Baseball: Satriano Seals Louisiana’s Sweep of FAU

Louisiana grabbed a 3-1 lead in the fifth inning and saw the advantage cut to one run in the seventh inning when a balk was called on reliever Matt Hicks’ delivery with the bases loaded.

The bases were re-loaded after Hicks hit Andy Mee, but the Owls (17-11, 5-4 Sun Belt) were stopped in their tracks as Satriano struck out Alex Hudak looking and Nick Delguidice grounded out to second base.

The Cajuns (16-11, 6-3 Sun Belt) added insurance runs in the bottom of the seventh inning using a pair of one-out singles to set up a squeeze play by Tyler Frederick and RBI single by Chris Sinclair.

Satriano took care of the rest posting zeros in the eighth and ninth inning to notch his first save of the season and make a winner out of T.J. Geith (6.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 3K).

Louisiana won for the eighth time in the past nine outings and extended its win streak at "The Tigue" to five games. FAU was swept in Sun Belt play for the first time since April 2009 at Troy.

The Ragin’ Cajuns return to action on Tuesday, April 5 against Rice at Reckling Park in Houston. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m., for a game that begins a stretch in which UL plays 10 of the next 11 games on the road.

Geith was strong again for UL working through six complete innings for the third straight outing, doing so on 106 pitches. In his last four starts the senior lefty has worked 24 1/3 innings and allowed only seven runs and 18 base hits.

Defensively, the Cajuns turned a season-high four double plays of which three were the 5-4-3 variety.

Satriano, who worked four innings of relief in collecting a victory in the series opener on Friday, finished the weekend series with 6 2/3 innings of two-hit relief.

R.J. Alvarez held Louisiana scoreless through the first four innings until two of his five walks wound up costing him in the fifth inning.

A leadoff infield single by Raymond Church in the first inning materialized into FAU grabbing an early lead. Three batters later, Church would score on a Hudak single to left field.

UL put runners on base in the second inning courtesy a fielding error by FAU first baseman Sean Bukovich. The error allowed Frederick to reach base then Sinclair drew a walk. After a failed pickoff attempt Alvarez induced a grounder from Jordan Bourque to keep the Cajuns off the scoreboard.

Geith was able to induce double play balls in the third and fourth inning to erase FAU leadoff hitters who reached base on free passes.

A pickoff of Greg Fontenot in the third inning and back-to-back strikeouts to start the fourth inning helped Alvarez post zeros in the Cajuns frames of those innings.

UL used a strange turn of events in the fifth inning to push across the first runs off of Alvarez. The bases were loaded via an Alex Fuselier triple with one out, Fontenot hit by pitch and Mike Petello two-out walk.

Alvarez worked the count full on Lance Marvel putting runners in motion. Alvarez walked Marvel, forcing home Fuselier with the tying run. The pitch he delivered was wild and as a result Fontenot was able to scamper home behind Fuselier for the go-ahead run.

Daniel Nichols brought home the third run of the inning as he singled through the left side off of reliever Josh Gonzaga.

BASES NOTED: With the sweep Louisiana vaulted into an 8-6 lead in the all-time series with FAU…The Cajuns are now 7-4 all-time at "The Tigue" vs. the Owls…For the third consecutive start, T.J. Geith posted a victory…Joey Satriano’s save was the third save of the week for UL pitching…The bullpen finished this week’s four game homestand allowing only one run and 12 hits over 19 innings…The Cajuns moved within three wins of posting a winning mark at "The Tigue" for the 16^th consecutive season…Louisiana is 12-4 at "The Tigue" in 2011… Louisiana held the opposition to single digit runs for the 58th time in the past 59 games…The Cajuns are 15-5 this season when holding the opponent to five runs or less…UL pitching held FAU to 18 hits in three games…FAU entered the series averaging 10.2 hits per game, but were held to just six per game by the Cajuns…Head coach Tony Robichaux is seven wins shy of win No. 600 as the Cajuns skipper (593-393-1 in his 17^th season at UL)…Louisiana hit .316 over the weekend, marking the second straight Sun Belt series with a team average above .300…It was a balanced effort by the Cajuns hitters as all but one of the starting nine posted at least three hits in the series…The next two Sun Belt series will be on the road as the Cajuns visit Western Kentucky (April 8-10) and FIU (April 15-17).

— Ragin’ Cajuns —