The Book: 2004 Baseball

[Oldman]

you need to come to the luncheon at 11:30 today and get the latest on who will be the pitching rotation this weekend (conference). i'm not worried about those little silly errors those are the kind you can fix, if it were major errors i'd be worried, now the one thing that is a concern you may not have notice is the consistency of our bull pen; now that's what worry me, sham is going back, but we will get the rest of the story today. come on over, look forward to seeing you, everyone's welcome. remember tonight! it's going to be a good test for us. GEAUX CAJUNS.

[RaginCajun13]

Congrats Phillip!! You definately deserve the honor!! We will be cheering you on tonight against Lamar!!!

[Southpaw03]

Oldman,
Please give us a report on what Robe says today at the luncheon. Unable to make it ...very interested in what he has to say. Thanks!

[UL_Cajuns]

Geaux Louisiana

[Oldman]

coach rob spoke alittle about lamar in that they are a pretty good club and that he welcomes the test to see where the team is before conference. they beat texas state, san marcus 2 out of 3, they sweep ark state, tech,and won a game against arizona state, st john, wake forest. they hit as a team .272, slg% .423, they play good defense and pitch well. no one really stands out.

western Kentucky, not a powerful team, beat vanderbilt, nothing that stands out.

coach mainly focused on the cajuns, how our guys need to play the game and not the scoreboard, he cautioned about this past weekend in particular and they need to build on thier accomplishment staying focus on what's ahead, cutting down on errors, putting the best swing on a pitch talking about the job coach szefc and bab has done with the hitters, pitching rotation: ardoin fri,kohrs sat,and sunday still up for grabs, shambough back to the bull pen, along with green, sanders,jeff morgan etc. sunday could be salazar-jeff morgan-pecoraro(who is starting tonite), middle relief sanders-thad-etc. their are alot of options. also talked about improvements, southern structure donated 2 canopy(red)permanent location 1st and 3rd base side, left field side completed cemented,new speaker (donated)should be in by apr 1st. new state of the art video equipment(donated)michigan state brought one and used it to record and chart the game, players will be able to come in after a bat and see what happened. it's alot guys i could keep going, really if you can make a luncheon you could get more info. he also talked about diferent positions, situations, 25 man roster(his feelings)signees one in particular a kid name Jonathan Lucroy, C (HS), from Umatilla Fla. about how patrick green hurt himself in the weight room(he's okay)and much more.

[Southpaw03]

Thank you for the info!! I will definitely try to make the next luncheon.

[RaginFan2]

Thanks for the info, Oldman. Those of us who are out of the area really appreciate it. It's kinda tough to make a luncheon from Mandeville! lol Keep up the good work.

[NewsCopy]

LOUISIANA La. — UL baseball coach Tony Robichaux wanted his team to get back to playing real baseball, and Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns did that here Tuesday night.

Lamar's Cardinals did it a little better.

The Cardinals rallied back from a 2-0 deficit, pushing across single runs in each of the last three innings and getting solid efforts from six different pitchers in taking a 4-3 decision over the Cajuns at Moore Field.

Lamar (18-6), ranked 28th in one national collegiate poll, plated its winning run in the top of the ninth inning on a wild pitch that scored pinch runner Joe Haney. The Cajuns had extended that inning on a misplay of a John-Austin Emmons bunt, but still were one out away from preserving a tie before a Thad Montgomery pitch eluded catcher Adam Massiatte.

"We had all the chances to break it open early and we didn't do it," said Robichaux, whose team lost for only the second time in 15 home games. "When you don't do that, it forces you to play perfect at the end."

The Cajuns (14-7) left nine runners on base in the last six innings and only added one run after getting two runs from their first four batters. That came in contrast to a weekend that saw UL Lafayette score 53 runs in three wins over Michigan and Harvard.

"We knew that we were going to have to play more real baseball than we did last weekend," Robichaux said. "We knew Lamar was going to come with some good arms, but we had an opportunity to separate ourselves early."

The rest of the story

Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@lafayette.gannett.com

[CDeb]

Curses!

[Oldman]

i will try to get as much info as i can to all of you whenever it presents itself. look closely, i will try to list of signees.

[Oldman]

name, pos ht. wt. hometown-hs (jc)

tim beasley, rhp-6-4 185 glenwood, min. (iowa western cc)
c.j. blue, Lhp/1b 6-1 170 mesquite, texas-poteet

matthew bounds, Of 6-0 200 purvis, miss-purvis

jonathan cottrell, rhp 6-4 180 niceville, fla okaloosa-walton jc

geoffrey craig, If 6-2 185 palm harbor, fla-clear.cath

john glass, rhp 6-2 200 clermont, fla-east ridge

t.j. gros, Lhp 6-1 165 amelia-morgan city (andy's cousin)

matthew hicks, If 5-11 175 houston, texas-memorial

jonathan lucroy, C 6-1 185 umatilla, fla..-umatilla

hunter moody, Lhp 6-1 185 clinton-silliman inst.

ken pokryfke, Lhp 6-1 195 twin lakes, wis (wabash valley cc)

jonathan smith, Lhp 6-1 185 new iberia-catholic hi


hopes this helps! okay understant the DREADED DRAFT can make a mess of things as you well know, and things do change at times.

[RednWhitex8]

For us new to the crew when and where are the luncheons held?

[Kawlija1]

I would be very interested in learning some performance statistics about these signees. This would give us some assistance in determining the quality of these, hopefully, new Ragin Cajuns.


K

[Oldman]

sorry i cannot supply you with that info. but if you are able to make one of the luncheon you could ask one of the coaches to give you a run down

[Oldman]

the luncheons are held in the convention building upstairs every tuesday 11:30, hope to see you there.

[NewsCopy]

LOUISIANA La. — One of Louisiana's's early-season baseball goals was to have the Ragin' Cajun players as healthy and prepared as possible for the start of Sun Belt Conference play.

It looks as though coach Tony Robichaux has reached that goal in time for tonight's league opener against Western Kentucky at Moore Field.

The Cajuns (14-7) have had three key players miss some time through the season's first 21 games. Shortstop Micah Cockrell missed five games with a stress fracture in his foot, pitcher Jered Salazar rolled an ankle fielding a bunt and didn't see game action for two weeks, and relief pitcher Patrick Green has been deliberate by design in his rehabilitation of an elbow injury.

All three will see action this weekend against the Hilltoppers (13-11) when the teams open league play at 6:30 p.m. in the first of three weekend games. The squads will also meet at 2:05 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday.

"We've got everybody ready, and I feel good about where we are right now," said Robichaux. "We've had to play some close games and we've played some games where we've had big leads, so we've had different kind of games to prepare us. Now it's time to go out and play games that mean something."

The Cajuns will wrap up a 12-game homestand with the three weekend contests and are 7-2 thus far even though falling 4-3 to Lamar on Tuesday.

"We needed the Lamar game," Robichaux said. "That brought us back to playing real baseball. This game can humble you, and I like that we were humbled a little bit going into conference play. We'll be better focused."

The rest of the story

Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@lafayette.gannett.com

[Oldman]

baseball conference starts tonight, hope to see alot of you there, this could be a very important series in the whole scheme of things being that it's at home and you want to get a good start. so come out and support the baseball team this weekend. GEAUX CAJUNS.

[Turbine]

I'm hoping to be there.

[Oldman]

good turbine, come by and say hello.

[NewsCopy]

LOUISIANA La. - Justin Merendino homered twice in the game as Louisiana took Western Kentucky down to the wire winning 4-3 Friday night in the Cajuns' Sun Belt Conference opener at Moore Field. UL goes to 15-7 on the season with the win.

After failing to convert a save opportunity, Kraig Schambough took the win throwing the ninth and allowing one hit on the three batters he faced. Schambough (3-1) entered the game in relief of Kevin Ardoin who pitched a strong game going eight innings allowing three runs on five hits while fanning six.

Greg Durr accepted the loss pitching the bottom of the ninth walking two and allowing the winning run to cross home.

Ardoin sat the Western Kentucky side in order in the top of the first and second innings.

Merendino hammered a 3-2 pitch over the left field wall to start the bottom of inning one, giving Louisiana-Lafayette an early 1-0 lead.

Western Kentucky's catcher Jordan Newton singled to right before scoring on a Matt Ransdell double in the top of the third.

Micah Cockrell singled to open the bottom of the third. Merendino moved him into scoring position with a bunt, but WKU starter Grady Hinchman would escape the inning without any run damage done.

Ardoin cruised through the top of the fourth getting a pair of ground outs to the infield before striking out one.

In the bottom of the fourth, Brad Saloom knocked a two-out flare into left, but Hinchman would again get out of the inning without surrendering a run in the inning.

The toppers took the lead in the fifth when Marcus Page opened the inning with a single to right before stealing second. Dominic Rio laid down a sacrifice bunt to move the runner to third. Philip Thayer hit a sacrifice fly deep to right to score Page who was tagging up. The run gave the Hilltoppers a 2-1 advantage.

Matt Johnston reached second on a fielder's choice and a throwing error before Tim Grogan walked putting Hilltoppers on first and second in the top of the sixth. It would be Ardoin to pitch out of the jam this time as he retired his next two to get out of the frame.

Dallas Morris bunted his way on with one away in the bottom of the sixth. Phillip Hawke drew a walk advancing Morris 90 feet. The Cajuns; however, could not secure runs as Hinchman retired the newt two batters to get out of the inning.

Ardoin worked his way out of the top of the seventh after surrendering a double to WKU's Cary Page.

Coker walked and stole second with two gone in the bottom of the seventh before Merendino hit his second homerun of the night to give the Cajuns a 3-2 lead.

In the same inning, Josh Landry laced a single to right-center chasing Hinchman in favor of Michael Shope who got the last out in the stanza for the Hilltoppers.

Western pulled even in the top of the ninth as Matt Gunning walked to open inning for WKU before Schambough entered the game in relief of Ardoin. The Hilltoppers played small ball again to move the tying run over to second. Pinch hitter Antone Towns plated Gunning with a single up the middle knotting the game at 3-3.

Greg Durr came on to throw the ninth inning for WKU and promptly gave up a walk to Coker. Merendino bunted Coker over to second. Landry was issued an intentional free pass before Morris was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Coker scored the winning run, waltzing home on a wild pitch as Rhett Buras stood at the plate.

The Cajuns will play Game two of the weekend set at 2:05 p.m. tomorrow before wrapping up the conference opening series Sunday at 1 p.m.

LOUISIANA SI

Kevin Ardoin fanned six WKU batters.