Baseball: UL’s Sun Belt tourney didn’t end as Robichaux scripted it

Tim Buckley, The Advertiser, May 27, 2018

After winning a Sun Belt Conference Tournament opener against Little Rock that produced a tourney-record 35 runs, and was spread out over a late night and an early morning because of a lightning delay, things did not end well for the UL baseball team.

Bats went dry, arms continued to struggle and the Ragin’ Cajuns proceeded to lose 10-1 to Troy in a game that started at almost 11 o’clock Thursday night and ended around 1:40 Friday morning, then 11-1 to Texas State in one at ended around 11 Friday night.

And that ended, in all likelihood, their 2018 season at 34-25 and without an NCAA Tournament bid for a second straight year.

All three Cajun starting pitchers — pro prospects Colten Schmidt, Hogan Harris and Nick Lee — were unable to go more than 5.0 innings, with Lee lasting just 4.1 innings against the Bobcats in an elimination game.

The indignity: UL — which outlasted Little Rock 19-16 — was run-ruled by Texas State on a one-hitter at its own home, M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field at Russo Park.

More: UL knocked out of Sun Belt tourney by Texas State

“We didn’t pitch good enough for our offense,” Cajuns coach Tony Robichaux said.

“You can’t give up 8, 9, 10 runs and expect our offense to come from behind like they did in game one.”

Crazy start times and limited recovery periods during the week certainly did not help matters.

In fact, Cajuns starter Kole McKinnon — who caught every inning this year after Handsome Monica got injured in UL’s season-opener — needed an IV injection of fluids just to make it through the three games.

Weather issues continued to wreak havoc with the tourney Saturday, when No. 1 seed Coastal Carolina’s morning game against South Alabama was interrupted for nearly four hours. Coastal wound up winning 3-1 to advance to Sunday’s title game against either Troy or Texas State.

More: Sun Belt Baseball Championship scoreboard

“The times we played sometimes killed some of our crowd,” Robichaux said after the Cajuns drew in the 3,200-paid range for their last two games, which is well below the 4,832 paid they averaged at home in the regular season.

“(But) I think when you miss lanes facing good hitters … that doesn’t have anything to do whether you play here or on the road.”

So the wacky tourney schedule wasn’t the biggest reason UL, the Sun Belt’s West Divison winner and tourney’s No. 2 seed, fell flat at the end.

But it may have played a part, combined with factors including the absence all season of would-be No. 1 pitcher Gunner Leger following two offseason surgeries, an oblique injury that cost Harris about six weeks early in the year, assorted injuries beyond that to pitchers including Jack Burk, McKinnon taking a pounding all season but having no backup help, an offense that frequently failed to produce and arms that didn’t have it when needed most.

“We don’t want to be an excuse maker,” Robichaux said.

“I just think when you add up the whole season with what they went through, losing all the people they’ve lost, the innings guys had to log in, playing injured … getting up and having that long game, going to bed at 3 o’clock (Thursday morning) — you add all that up, maybe it does (take a toll).

“But the bottom line is you can’t hang your hat on an excuse. It is what it is,” Robichaux added. “The times of the games were there because of the weather. It’s nobody’s fault. We just didn’t pitch. We got away from our script.”

Column: Sun Belt baseball in wee hours is silly but necessary

The Cajuns figure they can most frequently win behind strong pitching, solid defense and timely hitting.

The defense did its job in the tourney and throughout the year, finishing with an impressive .979 fielding percentage.

But without one or more of the three, the triangle collapses.

Ultimately, health matters caught up and stressed the pitching leg for UL as the Cajuns finished with an ERA of 4.49 for the season (topped by Sun Belt Pitcher of the Year Schmidt’s 2.45 and Harris’ 2.62) but 14-plus in the tournament.

“I know throughout the year, being thin and young in middle relief our starters had to eat up a lot of innings,” Robichaux said.

In a search for perspective, though, UL’s coach did at least find something for his club to hang its cap on.

“I’m proud of our guys getting back to this point to be the No 2 seed,” said Robichaux, whose Cajuns finished well above .500 despite opening the first half of its regular season 13-16.

“I thought they did a great job of overcoming all of what they had to overcome — all of the injuries, and the guys that were taken off the field at the beginning of the year, some pitchers that had to skip some starts.”

At the end, however, Robichaux said, “We just didn’t pitch good enough to keep the score down and help our offense.”

Considering that UL could lose four top arms, that does not seem to bode well going forward either.

Schmidt, who took over as UL’s No. 1 starter in Leger’s absence and finished with a 7-0 record, is a senior.

So is closer Logan Stoelke, who had 10 saves and 2.97 ERA, and both could get selected in next month’s Major League Baseball Draft.

Harris and/or Lee could also be lost to the draft, depending on how high the two juniors are picked — and it could be quite high for one or both.

“The good thing is you’re gonna pick up an All-American in Gunner Leger,” Robichaux said.

“People don’t realize what the work load is off of a 10-game winner like that, and the psyche in the clubhouse, knowing that every Friday night that guy’s gonna go out there. He just makes you believe you can beat anybody in the country.

“Plus, he thickens our bullpen,” Robichaux added. “The minute he went down, it thinned everything up.”

Losing high-energy Monica, who would have been UL’s cleanup hitter, and then Harris for a while also a played part in UL’s slow start, McKinnon’s grittiness behind the plate notwithstanding.

More: Scrappy UL catcher McKinnon survives another scare

It was one that — despite wins this season over nationally ranked opponents Texas (once in a three-game series), Vanderbilt, LSU (twice in two meetings) and Coastal Carolina (twice in three games) — cost the Cajuns a handful of victories that could have come in handy when at-large NCAA Tournament bids are announced on Selection Monday.

“The good thing is a lot of guys got weathered through this,” Robichaux sad.

“What I’m proud about is they could have quit halfway through, and they didn’t. They fought … and got themselves back together.”

Robichaux reflects back to a time when UL was hitting under .200 in the first half of the year, and even he seems a bit surprised the Cajuns were able to rally as far they did.

After Friday, they were at .242 with junior outfielders Daniel Lahare (.321) and Gavin Bourgeois (.311), freshman shortstop Hayden Cantrelle (.287) and senior utilityman Kennon Fontenot (.284) all above .280 (though no one else above .250).

More: The payoff is now for UL outfielders Lahare, Bourgeois

“You should be buried, and those guys won 34 games. Also kept their RPI decent (56 as of Saturday),” he said. “Plus you throw in the third-toughest non-conference schedule in the country. They had a lot to deal with.

“I’m not proud that we got 10-run-ruled. I’m proud they got themselves back to be in this tournament, to be the No. 2 seed.”

The Cajuns, however, exited after lopsided losses to No. 3 seed Troy and No. 6 seed Texas State.

“I don’t like where we were,” Robichaux said. “I like where we’re going.

“But, I don’t want to discount what these seniors did, (how) they grinded out, from being almost left for dead after that first half, and being able to turn it around and get back and put themselves in a position to be in this tournament.

“We just didn’t pitch good enough for our offense. … The key to it is you can’t give up 10 or 11 runs and expect your offense to keep covering that,” the Cajuns coach added. “We just gave up too many runs.”

More: Troy’s Crane does in UL in Sun Belt Tournament game