Baseball: Wilson’s Complete Game Effort Lands Win in Sun Belt Opener

• Box Score

LAFAYETTE – Ryan Wilson turned in a complete game in his Friday night debut for Louisiana and the Cajuns captured their 2013 Sun Belt Conference opener with a 9-2 triumph over in-state rival ULM in front of 2,325 at M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field.

Wilson, who pitched the Cajuns’ first complete game of the season, scattered nine hits and struck out nine in his first weekend start since the season’s opening weekend vs. Central Michigan.

With the exception of the two innings that ULM scored a run, Wilson did not allow a runner past second base.

Tyler Girouard’s two-run home run with two outs in the third inning erased a 1-0 deficit, then back-to-back home runs from Chase Compton and Sam Carriere started the bottom of the fourth inning as the Cajuns (14-3, 1-0 Sun Belt) began to pull away from the Warhawks (8-10, 0-1 Sun Belt).

Louisiana won its Sun Belt opener for the second straight season and third time in the past four seasons.

The Cajuns and Warhawks continue the Sun Belt opening series on Saturday at 2 p.m. at “The Tigue” in a MyKLAF broadcast. Austin Robichaux (2-0, 2.25 ERA) is scheduled to start for Louisiana and he’ll be opposed by Cale Wine (2-2, 2.33 ERA).

Girouard, coming off a career-high four hits last Sunday at Southern Miss, was one of three Cajuns with multiple hits (2-for-3). Jace Conrad (2-for-3) and Blake Trahan (2-for-4) also had multiple-hit outings.

Carey Taylor suffered the loss for ULM after allowing seven runs off nine hits in six innings.

Wilson’s nine strikeouts were the most by a Cajuns pitcher this season, surpassing the eight recorded by Chase Traffica in the Sacred Heart series opener (March 1).

The Ragin’ Cajuns improved to 12-2 at “The Tigue” and extended their current win streak at the facility to five games.

After Wilson and Taylor swapped zeros in the first two innings, Judd Edwards plated the game’s first run and gave ULM a 1-0 lead with a RBI double in the third inning.

Taylor’s bid for a third consecutive scoreless frame was spoiled by Seth Harrison’s two-out double in the bottom half of the third, which extended his hit streak to nine games. Girouard took advantage of the extended inning as he lifted his third home run of the season over the right field wall for a 2-1 lead.

Compton and Carriere’s back-to-back homers to start the fourth inning kept Taylor and the Warhawks on their heels.

Conrad and Trahan followed with back-to-back bunt singles, then after a double steal the duo would score off a Dex Kjerstad sacrifice fly and Ryan Leonards squeeze bunt upping the Cajuns lead to 6-1.

Louisiana finished off the scoring getting a run off a double steal of second and home in the sixth inning and back-to-back sacrifice flies in the seventh inning.

Wilson effectively shut the door on the Warhawks while the Cajuns finished off the scoring, retiring the visitors in order in the seventh and eighth inning.

BASES NOTED: Louisiana broke a tie with ULM in Sun Belt meetings, grabbing a 13-12 lead in league play since the Warhawks joined the SBC in 2007…The Cajuns ended a four-game Warhawks series win streak and upped their all-time advantage to 67-52…The Ragin’ Cajuns began their 22^nd season of competition in the Sun Belt Conference…Ryan Wilson moved out of the bullpen and took the place of Chase Traffica in the Friday night starter’s role…Traffica had started all four previous Fridays for the Cajuns…Wilson worked at least seven full innings in a start at “The Tigue” for the second straight time (tossed 7.0 innings in Feb. 27 start vs. Nicholls State)…Wilson has now tossed 24 2/3 innings at “The Tigue” in his first full Division I season (transfer from Seminole (Okla.) State College) and surrendered just six earned runs…Michael Strentz (hand injury) and Seth Harrison (staph infection) both returned to the starting lineup after missing all three games at Southern Miss…Harrison’s nine-game hitting streak is currently the team-best in 2013 and is the longest hit streak by a Cajuns player since Chase Compton and Dylan Butler produced a nine-game hit streak in 2012…Compton also extended a hitting streak, with his home run in the fourth inning stretching his current active streak to seven games…The seven-run margin of victory increased Louisiana’s run differential over the opposition to �47 (121-74)…Louisiana won by six-plus runs for the seventh time…The Cajuns produced five-plus runs for the 11^th time, improving to 11-0 when reaching that level of production in 2013…With Ryan Wilson on the mound, the Cajuns used Ryan Leonards in left field and started Dex Kjerstad in right field for the fourth straight game…Tyler Girouard has been in the starting lineup in seven of the past eight games and is providing the Cajuns with a “hot bat”, hitting .409 (9-of-22) with two doubles, two triples a home run and nine RBI…The infield combination of Chase Compton (1B), Jace Conrad (2B), Blake Trahan (SS) and Sam Carriere (3B) has committed only seven errors in a combined 316 chances.

LINE SCORE

Louisiana 9, ULM 2 (Mar 15, 2013 at Lafayette, La.)

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ULM…………….. 001 000 001 – 2 9 1 (8-10, 0-1 SUN BELT)

Louisiana……….. 002 401 20X – 9 10 0 (14-3, 1-0 SUN BELT)

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Pitchers: ULM – Taylor, Carey; Jones, Christo (7). Louisiana – Wilson, Ryan

Win-Wilson, Ryan (2-1) Loss-Taylor, Carey (1-2) T-2:12 A-2325

HR UL – Girouard, Tyler (3); Compton, Chase (1); Carriere, Sam (1)

Weather: 71, clear skies, S @ 14 MPH

— Ragin’ Cajuns —