Baseball – Wizard of Os: UL’s Osborne baffles Troy hitters in 6-0 Cajun win

Joshua Parrott • jparrott@theadvertiser.com • April 10, 2010

With nearly a half dozen pro scouts watching closely from behind home plate, Zach Osborne showed exactly why he’s regarded as one of the top pitchers in the Sun Belt Conference.

Osborne silenced Troy’s big bats on Friday night, throwing a one-hit shutout to lead UL to a 6-0 win at M.L. "Tigue" Moore Field to open a three-game league series.

"He was good tonight," UL coach Tony Robichaux said. "The thing that makes him so special is his ability to work fast and throw strikes. When you can hit him and you’re playing good defense behind him, and he can eat you up really quick.

"Then you look up and you’re in the eighth inning and don’t have a lot to show for it."

Osborne (4-2) was nearly perfect against Troy, allowing only one hit on Blake Martz’s one-out single in the third and facing only four batters over the minimum. The senior right-hander became the first Cajun to throw a one-hit shutout since Buddy Glass did so against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on April 8, 2006.

Troy (16-13, 4-6 Sun Belt) entered the weekend second in the Sun Belt with 47 home runs after winning eight of its past nine games. But Osborne located his pitches, stayed ahead in the count and got good movement on his two-seam fastball, which resulted in seven strikeouts and seven groundball outs in his third complete game of the season.

The 6-foot-5 Osborne walked one and hit two batters but allowed only one runner to advance past first base for the Cajuns (16-14, 5-8). That happened when Martz was safe at second on a Jordan Poirrier error in the third inning.

Osborne’s pitch movement left Troy – generally a good fastball-hitting team – swinging "at something that wasn’t really there," according to Robichaux.

"I felt good and was just trying to get ahead in the count and throw a lot of strikes," said Osborne, who threw 136 pitches over nine innings for UL’s first complete game shutout of the season. "In a couple of innings I fell behind in the count, but I was able to get out of it. My defense helped me out and made plays.

"Overall, I just tried to pitch backwards and mix up my pitches."

Troy was off-balance all night against Osborne, who tossed a four-hit shutout last season against the Trojans. The Houston native has not allowed a run and only five hits over 18 innings in the past two years against Troy.

"He was too good for us, and that is 18 innings against the Trojans without us scoring," Troy coach Bobby Pierce said. "You have to tip your cap to the kid. I really like him and his approach."

Osborne got all of the run support he needed in the first inning as Chad Keefer extended his hitting streak to 22 games with a two-run bomb on a 1-1 delivery from Troy starter Andrew Dickinson.

Keefer is now just one game shy of matching the best hitting streak in program history of 23 games set by Chris Webb in 1996.

"On the home run I hit, he started me off with a slider and then busted back with a fastball," said Keefer, who finished 3-for-4 with two RBIs despite recently dealing with a stomach virus. "So I knew he was going hard-soft-hard or soft-hard-soft. He came back with a slider and I just happened to put a good swing on it."

The Cajuns added four runs in the third inning to blow it open. After a bloop RBI single by Matt Goulas, Jordan Poirrier smacked the first pitch he saw from Dickinson over the right field fence for a two-run blast. Alex Fuselier followed two batters later with an RBI single to cap the scoring for both sides.

Osborne held Troy hitless over the final 6.2 innings, while Dickinson (3-3) gave up only two hits in the last five frames but still got stuck with the loss.

"Andrew Dickinson, other than the third inning, was pretty good himself," Pierce said. "He held them to a couple of bloop hits after the big third. He really settled in and gave us a good outing."

Both teams return to action at 6 p.m. today for Game 2 at Moore Field. The projected pitching matchup is junior lefty T.J. Geith (2-1, 5.01 ERA) for the Cajuns and sophomore righty Tyler Ray (4-2, 4.67 ERA).

With a victory today, UL will take its first Sun Belt series of the season. The Cajuns dropped their first four conference series this year, losing two of three games against Arkansas State, South Alabama, Florida Atlantic and Florida International. Troy had won only one of three Sun Belt series so far this season.

UL went into the weekend tied for eighth in the league standings, with the Trojans sitting in seventh place.

"We’re working to get out of this," Robichaux said. "We’re 2-0 in the second half (of the season). Really we’re just taking it game by game."

Extra bases

Troy hadn’t been shut out since Osborne blanked the Trojans last season "» Dickinson was the first Trojan to throw a complete game since 2008 "» The Cajuns improved to 14-7 in the all-time series. They’ve won all five series openers since Troy joined the Sun Belt in 2006 "» In fact, the Cajuns have taken each of the previous four series from Troy "» UL scored first for the ninth consecutive game on Keefer’s two-run homer in the first inning "» Osborne retired the first seven batters he faced "» The Cajuns are now 13-5 this season in night games and 12-8 overall at home this year "» UL also stole four bases.