home sitesearch sitemap contact fan about
home
  Submit/Update Profile  

Search the Network:




Baseball: Cajuns wrap up easy weekend sweep of North Alabama

Kevin Foote, Acadiana Advocate, May 9, 2021 


ACA.ulbaseball3.051021

UL shortstop Bobby Lada, left, bumps fists with catcher Drake Osborn (13) after he scored a run during Sunday’s win over North Alabama at Russo Park.  Buy Now  

The UL Ragin’ Cajuns continued their slow, steady domination of North Alabama by completing the weekend sweep with a 13-3 win Sunday at Russo Park.

The Cajuns pounded out 17 hits, but only four were extra-base hits – all doubles – and North Alabama only committed one error.

UL improved to 26-20 with the win, while North Alabama fell to 7-38 on the season.

“It was a good day,” UL coach Matt Deggs said. “It was a good weekend. But it was what we should do against a team that’ scuffling like that. That’s encouraging. Mediocre teams play down to their opponent. It was good to see us work to get better. We played fast, hard and loose.”

The Cajuns will next host the Southern Jaguars at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Russo Park.

The offensive damage was achieved up and down the lineup for the Cajuns with RBI single after RBI single.

After North Alabama scored the game’s first run in the first, UL countered with one run in the first and second and then three more in the third. The Cajuns really put themselves on easy street with four runs in the fifth and three more in the sixth.

Brennan Breaux stayed on fire by going 3-for-3 with a double and two walks.

“Seeing the ball well, yeah absolutely,” Breaux said. “Having an idea of what I’m looking for when I go up there too is a big plus for me right now. I kind of know what I’m looking for. I kind of know for the most part what they’re trying to do and what they want to do.”

The back end of that 1-2 punch all weekend was Connor Kimple, who was 2-for-2 with two RBIs and two sacrifices.

Drake Osborn continued his sizzling hitting on top of the order at 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI, while Tyler Robertson appears even more comfortable dropped in the order at 2-for-5 with a double and an RBI in addition to playing third base.

“I was really happy (Sunday),” Robertson said. “I feel like everybody was firing on all cylinders.

“I feel like it gave us a lot of confidence and hopefully it’ll go over to the next couple of games.”

Josh Cofield added to the team effort at 1-for-1 with two RBIs. Brett Borgogno was 1-for-2 with an RBI and Jonathan Brandon 1-for-3 with an RBI.

“We did a really good job at the short game today, coming up with big hits,” Deggs said. “It was a tough last two days as far as the long ball with the wind. There was a big wind in our face for the last two days. We swung it pretty good. We’ve got to get better execution-wise. We’ve got to get better at not taking fastballs over the white in RBI situations.”

Jack Burk improved his record to 4-0 on the season with the win in relief, giving up no runs or hits, walked one and struck out two in two innings.

Starter Hayden Durke did allow a run, but limiting North Alabama to three hits, one walk and struck out five in three innings.

“It was encouraging to see him bounce back after a little bit of a rough start in the first,” Deggs said. “(Pitching coach) B.J. (Ryan) went out and kind of slowed him down. When his feet get fast, he has a tendency to lose command. Then I thought we pitched it pretty well the rest of the day.”


EMAIL KEVIN FOOTE AT KFOOTE@THEADVOCATE.COM.