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Baseball: Wild ride – How Robichaux’s Cajuns reversed their season – Senior Day, Graduation, JerseysTim Buckley, The Advertiser, May 16, 2018
They opened the first half of the 2018 regular season 12-16. The question then for some was not how high of a seed they could take into the Sun Belt Conference Tournament, but whether they would even be able to qualify for it. Now? The 30-23 Ragin’ Cajuns head into their final series of the season, against UL Monroe, with a chance to win the Sun Belt Conference’s West Division and take the No. 2 seed into the league tourney they host next week on M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field at Russo Park. UL is 18-7 so far in the second half, including Tuesday night’s 7-6 win over Tulane. More: DH Lott’s approach pays big in UL’s 7-6 win over Tulane “Halfway they could have packed it in,” UL coach Tony Robichaux said. “They’ve been through so much, so many injuries, so many key players down, then having to shuffle this and shuffle that, guys playing injured, a catcher that’s catching every inning. “They’ve been under a lot of duress, and I’m proud of them,” Robichaux added. “They could have quit.” But they did not. The Cajuns instead got it together in the second half, and going into a three-game series with ULM that opens Thursday night at The Tigue UL – 15-12 in SBC play so far – holds a half-game lead over Little Rock in the Sun Belt West. Related: Call it clean-up time for Robichaux’s UL baseball team It’s a ULM club UL has beaten 22 times in a row. Little Rock, 14-12 in SBC play, closes at home against South Alabama. UL also sits ahead of Texas State, which at 13-14 in SBC action heading into its final series at Texas-Arlington still has a chance to win the Sun Belt West too. But protect the lead, and the Cajuns will be the No. 2 seed in the league tourney behind 2018 Sun Belt East-winner and 2016 College World Series-winner Coastal Carolina. “They could have packed it in a long time ago,” said Robichaux, whose Cajuns recently took 2-of-3 from then-No. 15 Coastal Carolina. Related: Lots of little things lift UL over No. 15 Coastal Carolina More: Fontenot’s blast, hot bats help UL beat Coastal Carolina Instead? “They still have a lot in front of them," Robichaux said. "They still have a chance to get to a Regional. Will it be easy? Never is.” Yet it’s possible, despite all UL has had to overcome this year. Would-be No. 1 pitcher Gunner Leger took a redshirt following offseason arm and leg surgeries. Starting catcher Handsome Monica hurting a knee in the Cajuns’ season-opener, then before returning sustained an elbow injury that required recently performed partial Tommy John surgery, leaving backup Kole McKinnon to work every inning since then. More: Robichaux saus Cajuns catcher McKinnon is ‘such a warrior’ Highly regarded pro prospect Hogan Harris, who started the season as UL’s No. 3 pitcher and now is its No. 2, missed about a month-and-a-half early in the season with oblique and rib injuries. There were other injuries too. But that’s not all. Two true freshmen, Hayden Cantrelle at shortstop and Jonathan Windham at third, are starting in the infield. And only four Cajuns – Cantrelle, utilityman/designated hitter Kennon Fontenot and starting outfielders Gavin Bourgeois and Daniel Lahare – started the week hitting above .235. Pitcher Nick Lee has gone from starter to closer and now back to starter. Related: The payoff is now for UL outfielders Lahare, Bourgeois More: Role reversal for UL’s Lee It really has been a wild ride. “(Our) six seniors have done an excellent job of not letting guys just wither away when they were told Gunner was gonna redshirt, then they were told Handsome’s gonna redshirt, then Kole’s gotta catch every game,” Robichaux said with reference to seniors Fontenot, No. 1 starting pitcher Colten Schmidt, relief pitcher Dylan Moore, starting outfielder Zach LaFleur, closer Logan Stoelke and first baseman Tyler Stover. “They’ve got themselves in a good position. They’ve got some things ahead of them they’ve got total control over. They don’t have to sit around and hope, hope something else happens around the league.” It was, granted, a rough beginning. Early on, Robichaux said the Cajuns were more focused on “results” than “the process” like they should have been. UL, meanwhile, has had one of the country’s tougher non-conference schedules, playing 11 games against opponents that were nationally ranked at the time. At the start of the week, in fact, it was third-toughest nationally. More: Cajuns brace for 2018 schedule that will ‘rough them up’ Eight of those games, including four losses, came during the season’s first half. Four straight games against nationally ranked opponents came during a particularly taxing early March stretch in which UL beat Vanderbilt and LSU (for the first of two times) while losing to Mississippi State and Kentucky. In time, though, Robichaux said that “instead of trying to win” the Cajuns “started to compete.” It’s the competing that led to the winning. “I think they’ve done just a great job in the second half of understanding what they have to do to be successful,” Robichaux said. Moreover, and perhaps just as importantly, he said “they stayed together internally.” The result is a team that, heading into the ULM series, sits a lot prettier than it could have considering all the hurdle it’s had to overcome. It’s even one that thinks it has a shot at NCAA Tournament play. “I’m not proud of where we are in the sense of ‘we need to be better than where we are,’ ” Robichaux said. “But having started the first half with all the injuries and everything,” he added, “I’m glad they didn’t just pack it in and blame everything on injuries.” More: Cajuns ace Leger explains decision to sit out the season UL vs. UL MONROEWHAT: Sun Belt Conference college baseball series WHEN: 6 p.m. Thursday, 6 p.m. Friday, 3 p.m. Saturday WHERE: M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field at Russo Park RECORDS: UL 30-23, 15-12 in the Sun Belt; ULM 23-28, 10-17 TV: None STREAMING: RaginCajuns.com RADIO: KPEL 96.5 FM with Jay Walker and Brad Topham PROBABLE UL PITCHERS: Senior LHP Colten Schmidt (7-0, 1.81 ERA) Thursday night, junior LHP Hogan Harris (4-1, 2.33) Friday night, junior RHP Nick Lee (2-6, 4.68) Saturday UL LEADERS: OF Daniel Lahare (.326, 3 triples, 4 HR, 46 runs scored), OF Gavin Bourgeois (.308, 14 doubles, 18 steals), 1B/LF/3B/DH Kennon Fontenot (.293, 4 HR), SS Hayden Cantrelle (.273), 2B Hunter Kasuls (.240, 40 RBI)
Jeff Schneider, Associate Director of Athletics Communications THE WEEKEND SERIES
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