Box Score LAFAYETTE – Gunner Leger and a five run fourth inning propelled the 16th ranked Louisiana Ragin Cajuns to an 8-0 shutout of the Sacred Heart baseball team on Friday night at M.L. "Tigue" Moore Field.
Leger threw the first six scoreless innings, scattering just five hits and striking out six. He passed the Jevin Huval, who along with Chris Charpentier and Reagan Bazar, each threw a perfect inning of relief to complete the shutout.
Scoring the first run of the evening in the third, Louisiana (6-4) broke it open with five runs in the fourth. SHU starter James Cooksey was able to get the first out, but the next five hitters to come to the plate would all reach, starting with Nick Thurman's double. He came in to double the lead on Dylong Poncho's single before Cooksey ran into some control issues, issuing a walk and then hitting a batter to load the bases. Alex Pinero would make him pay, singling on a first pitch to stretch the advantage to 4-0. Following a flyout, Brenn Conrad walked before Stefan Trosclair put an exclamation point on the frame with an 0-2, two-out double to make the score 6-0.
Louisiana would add one run in each the seventh and eighth to complete the scoring. Thurman, Poncho, Joe Robbins and Hunter Kasuls, who also scored three times, each had two hits for the Rajin Cajuns, who outhit Sacred Heart 12-5.
Jesus Medina was 1-3 with a double and a walk for Sacred Heart. Brent Teller and Baylor Sundahl each threw scoreless innings of relief without surrendering a hit. Cooksey was tagged for six runs on eight hits in four innings of work.
The two teams play game two of a three game series tomorrow at 3 pm ET.
How it Happened
- PJ DeFilippo was the lone base runner to reach scoring position in the first two innings, singling with one out before stealing second with two, only to be stranded on a Leger strikeout
- Cooksey worked around two base hits in the bottom half, thanks in large part to Cody Doyle throwing out StevenSensley for the first out of the inning after he had led off with a single
- Alex Perry doubled with one out in the third to give SHU its second scoring opportunity, but again Leger got out of it unscathed
- The Ragin Cajuns would open the scoring in the bottom of the third, which began with Hunter Kasuls leading off with a single. He was sacrificed to second, and after moving up to third on Robbins' single, Conrad brought him home on a sacrifice fly
- Teller had trouble with command in his first inning of work, the fifth, walking one and hitting another with one out, but he would not allow a hit and got out of it safely
- Sacred Heart's best opportunity to score came in the sixth, with Sullivan singling with one out and Medina following up with his double to put runners on second and third. Just as he had done all night, Leger escaped trouble with back-to-back punch outs
- Like Teller, Sundahl ran into some control issues, getting the first outs before issuing back-to-back walks and a hitting a batter to load the bases. He would bear down though, recording his second strikeout of the inning
- Kasuls manufactured Louisiana's seventh run in the seventh, singling with one out and then stealing second and third. He would come in on Pinero's sacrifice fly
- Derek Herrington singled to lead off the eighth before advancing to third on a Thurman doubled. Brian Mills drove in the final run of the night on a groundout
