Baseball: Tag team – UL’s Moore, Carter working well from the pen

Tim Buckley, The Advertiser, May 5, 2016

 

Eric Carter pitches in relief for the Cajuns against TCU earlier this year at Minute Maid Park in Houston.(Photo: Chris Daigle/Special to the Advertiser)

 

A Ragin’ Cajuns starting pitcher goes around five, six or seven innings, then hands off a lead to reliever Eric Carter, who after an inning or so yields way to closer Dylan Moore.

It has become a somewhat predicable, and typically rather successful, routine.

And it’s an almost idyllic situation for UL baseball coach Tony Robichaux, who doubles as pitching coach for a nationally ranked team that takes a 29-16 record into its Sun Belt Conference home series with Appalachian State that gets under way Friday night at M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field.

“To have two guys that can come in with wipeout stuff is really phenomenal to bring in in the back end of a game — especially following up a traditional changeup guy,” Robichaux said after a win last month over Southeastern Louisiana in which usual Friday night starter Gunner Leger worked 7.0 innings and Carter and Moore one inning each in a combined one-hitter.

“It’s a good combo (Carter and Moore), if we can keep it going,” Leger recently added. “They’re both throwing so well. It makes it a lot easier, knowing that you’re handing it off to those two guys.”

Moore, who earlier this season became UL’s career saves leader despite being just a sophomore, is 4-1 with a team-best 0.53 ERA and 11 saves in 34.0 innings of work over 19 appearances.

That’s right: 0.53.

Carter, a senior, is 3-1 with a 3.21 ERA and two saves in 28.0 innings over 18 appearances.

There was one bump in the road last week, when both Carter and Moore stumbled a bit in a midweek non-conference loss to Louisiana Tech.

But the two were right back at it Saturday, tag-teaming this time in the second game of a doubleheader at Texas-Arlington.

Carter did give up a two-RBI single in the fifth, with both runs charged to starter Wyatt Marks.

But he worked a scoreless sixth to record the win in No. 19 UL’s 6-4 victory, and Moore pitched the final 3.0 innings with three hits but no runs allowed for his 11th save of the season.

“Our whole bullpen has been pitching well,” said Moore, who on Wednesday also was named UL’s male Student-Athlete of the Year.

“But having Eric (Carter) to bridge the gap has been really nice,” he added. “It’s been helping the starters as well, keeping their pitch counts down.”

Usual UL Sunday starter Nick Lee worked 6.0 scoreless innings before turning a 0-0 game over to Carter back on April 24, when Carter got the win and Moore the save in an eventual 1-0 victory.

“Whenever you have the bullpen that we have, it’s really, really good,” Lee said. “It puts takes a lot of pressure off you, not to have to pitch the whole game. That helps a lot.”

What seems to make things work so well for Carter and Moore is the uniqueness between the two righties.

“Carter now is a four-pitch guy,” Robichaux said.

Fastball in the 90s. Cutter. Changeup. A curve that comes in the form of a looping breaking ball.

And he can consistently throw them all for strikes.

“Then from behind him you’re dealing with DMo,” Robichaux said. “DMo is totally different. He’s almost a two-pitch with a changeup, which makes him a three-pitch guy. People like to look at him as a fastball-slider guy, but he has a good changeup.”

Moore, a 6-foot-4 Texan from Hughes Springs High, also has a somewhat quirky delivery that makes him tough to figure out, especially those who haven’t faced him much.

He’s transitioned from a high school starter to a college closer who has learned how to channel his aggression, helping him improve even on a 2015 season in which he was 3-3 with 13 saves and a 1.60 ERA in 50.2 innings over 32 appearances — good for Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American honors.

Carter, who stands 5-11, is a Utah native who both pitched and played linebacker and defensive end at Snow Canyon High in St. George, Utah.

He played two seasons at Salt Lake Community College, and joined the Cajuns last season, when he struggled with a 4.05 ERA and 1-1 record in just six appearances.

In his case, adding one pitch has made a world of difference.

It was the cutter.

“He’s been stellar out of the bullpen,” Moore said of Carter.

“Developing that cutter — I wouldn’t want to catch him; I wouldn’t want to hit off him, either. So he’s been great.”

According to Robichaux, Cajuns volunteer assistant coach Daniel Freeman said Carter picked the pitch up quickly when the two worked on it over the offseason.

“That’s been the biggest difference-maker,” Robichaux said.

But it’s not the only thing Carter added for 2016.

“With the cutter has also been his mindset. Last year his mindset wasn’t what it is this year,” Robichaux said. “He didn’t charge hitters as much. He kind of waited sometimes until he got threatened.”

Carter did strike out 11 while working 7.0 innings to get his first career win over Southern, and he had scoreless outings against Northwestern State and New Orleans.

But something just wasn’t quite there then that is now.

“Now he’s going after the hitters,” Robichaux said. “He’s throwing every pitch with every fiber in his body believing that he’s gonna get you out, and now that he’s got that cutter.

“His curveball … will lock you up. But the trouble with it is that it’s not in the same tunnel as his fastball.”

The cutter is, and that’s been a huge help.

Leger, in fact, said Carter is “way more” confident this season than last, and “his whole demeanor has changed.”

“A complete (180),” Leger said. “He’s doing incredible this year.”

As much as the pitches he is throwing, though, it’s the mentality behind them that accelerated the turnaround.

It’s something Carter vowed would be different early this season, when it was apparent he indeed was a different pitcher than in 2015.

“I wouldn’t say it’s ‘more comfortable,’” Carter said after an early season outing against Texas Christian in Houston. “I felt pretty good with this system last year.

“I think it’s just a change of mindset, up and down — just making sure I’m more in attack mode when I take the field … (and) knowing I have the capabilities to get anyone out and just being more comfortable with my abilities.”

LAGNIAPPE: Moore on Thursday was named to the 2016 CoSIDA Academic All-District 6 team. … As part of “Ron Guidry Weekend” at The Tigue, former UL and New York Yankees pitcher Ron Guidry will autograph both sides of specially designed jerseys that the Cajuns will wear Friday night and auction off after all three games against Appalachian State (15 each time). … Also this weekend, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital will donate $100 for every strikeout recorded by a Cajun pitchers this weekend to the American Stroke Foundation in the program’s honor.

   No. 19 UL (29-16, 14-7 in the Sun Belt) vs. APPALACHIAN STATE (14-31, 8-16)

   WHAT: Three-game Sun Belt Conference series

   WHERE: M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field (3,755)

   WHEN: 6 p.m. Friday, 6 p.m. Saturday, noon Sunday

   RADIO: KPEL 96.5 FM with Jay Walker

   TV: KADN-DT3 Sunday only

  

   PITCHING MATCHUPS

   Friday night: LHP Gunner Leger (5-3, 2.63 ERA) vs. LHP Bobby Hampton (1-6, 6.70 ERA)

   Saturday night: RHP Wyatt Marks (3-5, 5.14 ERA) vs. RHP Breydan Gorham (1-4, 5.13 ERA)

   Sunday: RPH Nick Lee (6-1, 3.22 ERA) vs. LHP Colin Schmid (1-6, 5.61 ERA)

   ABOUT THE OPPONENT: Appalachian State has won three straight, taking the last two games of a three-game Sun Belt home series with Appalachian State and beating North Carolina A&T 10-9 in non-conference play Tuesday night. … The Mountaineers also took 2-of-3 from SBC leader South Alabama earlier this season. … Top hitters: CF Tanner Mann-Fix (.306), SS/2B Matt Vernon (32 RBI, five homers)

   ABOUT THE CAJUNS: UL took 2-of-3 at Texas-Arlington to snap a three-game losing streak and win its sixth straight weekend series. … Leading hitters: CF Kyle Clement (.370), 1B Alex Pinero (.316), LF Brian Mills (.305, 31 RBI), 3B Joe Robbins (nine homers) … The Cajuns are 1-2 all-time vs. Appalachian State, all last season.