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Baseball: View From The Bench With Scott Brazda – No trip to College World Series this time
By Scott Brazda and Steve Landry, Acadiana Gazette, June 11, 2014
LAFAYETTE – Great defense by the Ole Miss Rebels and lack of clutch hitting by the #1 UL Lafayette Cajuns – and iffy pitching from them in this hosted Super Regional – resulted in a 10-4 loss at Tigue Moore Field in the third game of a three-game series. That means the Cajuns are not going to the World Series. This past Monday, the season ended for what was probably the best team in college baseball. But, as they say, that’s why you play the game. They won the first game. They lost the second game on Sunday. Then Monday came and the sold-out crowd went home disappointed but it should be noted that as the ninth inning ended some UL fans were clapping for the opponents that are now headed to the Omaha for the College World Series. But they were mostly clapping a “thank you” to the Cajuns. The Cajuns had not been to the World Series since 2000. For Ole Miss, it’s been 42 years. Now, the Rebels will play next weekend with two four-team brackets in a double elimination tourney. The winners of each bracket play a best-of-three for the title. The Cajuns, meanwhile, are done for 2014, taking a slew of seniors with them. As 96.5’s sports guru Jay Walker said: “It ends suddenly.” It’s been 101 wins over two years for UL’s baseball program. Walker (see PG. 5-A for his comments on another subject) said, post-game, that a 58- 10 team is something to be proud of. About 4,300 in mostly red attire attended and few left early, but the die-hards stayed mostly to thank the team for the great year. “The fans were great tonight, even in the ninth inning,” Walker said on his radio show. “I’m proud to be a part of the Cajun Nation right now.” He said: “This is a ball team we’ll never forget.” Walker, in his final thoughts on the radio, said: “Has there ever been a better time to be a Cajun fan?” Let’s tick off that assessment, one by one: • In the fall the Cajuns won their third New Orleans Bowl. • Soccer had its best season in history. • The UL volleyball team had the most wins in almost 20 years. • In the winter, UL women’s basketball had the best year since 2007. • The UL men’s basketball team won the Sun Belt Conference and qualified for the NCAA Tournament for March Madness. • The UL men’s tennis team won a championship in the Spring and going to the NCAA. • The women’s softball team making it to the CWS in Oklahoma City. “I don’t know if you’re ever going to see very many baseball teams in America that are going to be able to say they averaged over 50 wins over a two-year period, but the Cajuns will be able to say it,” Walker said.
And So It Ends … by Scott Brazda And so it ends… ends in a way not the least bit reflective of just how amazing a season this was. But the big-time college baseball atmosphere was right here in Acadiana, and the drama was there… until the final inning. NCAA Super Regional, Game Three. The Ragin’ Cajuns and Ole Miss Rebels all tied up at one game apiece. College World Series on the line. For the third straight night, UL’s Tigue Moore Field and the adjacent Cajun Field parking lot took on a tailgating, football-ish atmosphere: Fans barbecuing, kids tossing balls around, tents, chairs and TVs at the ready. And for the folks not able to get into The Tigue, the UL Athletic department and some communityminded sponsors had brought in some big, big screens… so those not in the game ….were almost inside, yet still part of the game. Inside the ballpark, the teams spent the first couple innings feeling each other out, and put up zeroes; that is, until the bottom of the third, when Notre Dame High product Ryan Leonards notched the first of his three hits, and laced a double to center field. Tyler Girouard’s sacrifice fly brought Leonards home, and the Cajuns took the first step to Omaha, via a 1-0 lead. But then Mother Nature had her say. The big showers that pelted Evangeline Parish in the late afternoon visited Lafayette Parish around 7 p.m., and seemed to give the Rebels a bit of a boost in the top of the fourth. Double. Homer. Homer. Whether it was the rain, or the Ole Miss hitters, no matter: Cajuns hurler Cody Boutte dug himself a hole and the Cajuns trailed 3-1. However, the precipitation apparently had the same effect on the Cajun hitters. Compton was hit by a pitch. Butler doubled. Strentz slapped an rbi grounder to third, and Leonards zinged another double. Cajuns and Rebels were dead even, 3-3 after four. That’s when it became a battle of the bullpens. Once Boutte walked the first batter of the fifth, Tony Robichaux went to his bullpen. Again. And again. And again. First Hicks, then Griffith, then Plitt. Robichaux was all in, fully grasping the ‘there’s no tomorrow’ message of the game. Four pitchers in the fifth, but a Rebel run in to put Ole Miss up 4-3. The weird thing was that the way the Rebs got that fourth run (and take a lead they would never relinquish) was… just plain weird. And very un-Cajunslike. Rebel hit by pitch. Then a wild pitch. Then a walk. Then a passed ball. Then another walk. It was like the baseball gods were saying to the UL faithful, “O.K., we gave you 67 games where this kind of stuff didn’t happen; unfortunately, now your number’s come up.” Ole Miss touched Plitt with a two-out walk and double to go up 5-3 in the sixth, but with the fans turning up the volume on the “Ragin’!! Cajuns!! Ragin’!! Cajuns!!” cheer, and seemingly willing the team to regain its mojo, the Cajuns proved they weren’t quite ready to go quietly into the night. A Rebel error, allowing Girouard to get on, was followed by an Adams walk, which set the stage for potential heroics by Seth Harrison. Harrison smacked a double down the left field line, which in turn gave the Cajuns hope…yet dashed them at the very same time. Harrison’s double into the corner sent Girouard scurrying home to make it 5-4, and, with the ball ricocheting a bit, the call was made to send Adams home as well. But a perfect throw, and a perfect block of the plate by Ole Miss catcher Will Allen kept Adams from touching home with his hand, and subsequently, kept the Cajuns from knotting things up. Still, it was a one-run game again… a one-run deficit with two at-bats to go in front of the home crowd…and a one-run deficit for a team that hadn’t lost back-to-back games all season. Sure, Ole Miss was really good, with a really good pitching staff, but the Cajuns and their karma seemed to be in place, seemed to be ready to zoom UL to its second World Series appearance. Funny thing about karma, though; seems we often forget that the other team may have some of that magical stuff as well. A sac fly, or sac liner off Harrison, built the Rebs’ lead back up to two, 6-4 in the top of the eighth, and that one… that extra run… seemed to sap the spirit of the crowd. A few started leaving, only to come scurrying back in when Leonards delivered his third hit, and brought Jace Conrad to the plate with the tying run. It was the final gasp, and Conrad had delivered so many times before…. But not this time. Conrad lifted a lazy fly to center for the inning’s third out, and the Cajuns moved into the ninth down by two, and with no room for any mistakes. The final Ole Miss at-bat of the night was a mess…for the Cajuns. A batter hit, then a single, then the bases loaded with no outs. Fans were hunched over, praying and hoping and wishing for the miracle… that didn’t come. The Rebels cleared the bases via a liner into the right field corner, and when the dust settled, Ole Miss had put the game away with a 10-4 lead. And that did it. UL did finally go quietly into the night— three up, three down to end the game—but then, something truly amazing happened. The Cajuns faithful (and many had stayed through the ugly ninth) stayed in the stands, stood up and cheered. They cheered and clapped and whistled….and said, “Thank you”. That’s “thank you” to the 2014 Ragin’ Cajuns, a mid-major team from the Sun Belt Conference that won 58 games and was ranked number one— NUMBER ONE—for a good part of the season. And it all happened right here, right here in little ol’ Lafayette. The College World Series was not to be, and for many, that’s a tough pill to swallow. But coming up one win short doesn’t make this season any less extraordinary. We will speak of this season for years to come. It was certainly… one for the ages.
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