Bulldogs Bite Cajuns In First Midweek Test

Winning on the road is a tough task, and the Ragin' Cajuns learned that lesson the hard way in their first midweek game in Ruston.

Louisiana Tech handed the Cajuns their first loss of the season, 6-2, and their pitching staff staff struck out thirteen Cajun batters. Tony Robichaux's team left eight men on base against an in-state rival, and they failed to follow his number one rule. Numbers and statistics usually don't matter to Coach Robe, but a three-run inning will get his attention every single time.

Evan Guillory (4.1 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 1 K) didn't have his best performance as a Cajun. He left the game in the fifth inning, when the game started to spin out of control.

"They nickle and dimed us. One run, one run..what you have to do is stay away from the three run inning." Robichaux said after the game. "We let that fifth inning get away from us."

Tech led 2-0 heading into the fifth inning, then they cracked the game open with a four spot. Will Bacon was supposed to be the fire extinguisher, but he allowed three runs and five hits without recording a single out. Winning on the road isn't easy, and midweek games aren't exactly normal, but this was a disappointing lesson to learn this early in the season.

Kyle Clement, who tied a school record on Sunday with five hits, went 0-4 with three strikeouts. He wasn't the only Cajuns who was off his game. Stefan Trosclair and Steven Sensley both struck out multiple times as well, and Hunter Kasuls collected the only two RBI's for the team in the 9th inning as a pinch hitter. Nick Thurman and Brenn Conrad both had two hits, but there weren't enough timely hits from the rest of the team to come up with the win.

Louisiana Tech definitely enjoyed hitting in their own park. Six of their eleven hits went for extra bases, and they had eight different players pick up a hit on the day. It was their night on Wednesday, but the Cajuns can't afford to just chalk this one up to bad luck.

"You got to learn that when you do lose not to put yourself back in that position," Robichaux said.

The loss drops the Cajuns to 3-1, and they're headed to Houston this weekend for a clash with some top-tier teams. Tech punched some holes in the armor of a team ranked in the top ten, but the Cajuns earned that ranking for a reason.

Baseball season is long. Four games into the year, teams are still learning. Hopefully for the Cajuns, they don't have to learn this lesson twice.