Cajuns start their baseball season off with a win against Wright State

It was opening weekend for college baseball across the nation and the Ragin Cajuns opened it by hosting Wright State at M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field at Russo Stadium.

The Cajuns enter this season under head coach Matt Deggs who is starting his fifth season as the head coach. He is joined by first year pitching coach, former Louisiana ace, Gunner Leger.

Starting the long road to the postseason and Omaha, the Cajuns would start in the rain on Friday, Feb. 16 against the Wright State Raiders.

Getting the nod to start for the Cajuns on the mound was junior Jack Martinez who transferred from Trinity University in Texas following the 2023 season. 

Martinez started quickly getting the first two batters out with fly outs to left and right field, only taking three pitches to do so. Wright State’s third batter, Jay Luikart, would hit the first pitch of his at bat into center field for a base hit.

It would be the Cajuns turn to bat, a quick turn though as the Cajuns went three up and three down in quick succession to Wright State pitcher Jake Shikir.

The next inning would see both teams go three up, three down with the Wright State batters all grounding out and two Cajuns batters striking out by swinging and looking.

At the bottom of the third senior first baseman, Trey LaFleur would step up to the plate and would make contact on the first pitch and send it flying down the left field line out of the park.

The crowd erupted as LaFleur rounded the diamond, the first homerun of the season that would put the Cajuns up 0–1.

The Raiders would reply the next inning though as an error by left fielder Maddox Mandino would allow Luikart to get to second. The Raiders would advance him to third before a sacrificial fly would bring him home to tie the game 1–1.

The fifth and sixth innings would see little action outside of a double by junior outfielder Conor Higgs and Cajuns bringing David Christie out of the bullpen to pitch for the sixth.

In the seventh inning the Cajuns would once again switch pitchers bringing up sophomore Steven Cash. Cash would strike out the batter up to face him before he was switched out for redshirt sophomore Blake McGehee.

McGehee started out decently, getting his first batter out with a grounder to shortstop, then he had a pitch hit for a single. The runner was able to advance to second off of a wild pitch from McGehee. 

Wright State’s next batter would help take the lead as he hit a double allowing the runner to score, making the game 2–1. McGehee would recover though and strike out the next batter, managing to end the inning without allowing more runs.

The Cajuns would end the seventh without reaching base once. The eighth would see another pitcher change for the Cajuns as junior LP Langevin would take the mound. 

Langevin would give up a hit and walk two, one was intentional, but did not allow any runs during the inning, nor any runs during the ninth.

The Cajuns would be unable to score in the bottom of the eighth, but Langevin managed to keep the Raiders scoreless, striking out two batters to keep the Cajuns in it.

Entering the bottom of the ninth the Cajuns would be up the bat, down one hoping to win the game. The Raiders would switch pitchers, bringing up Jay Luikart to try and end the Cajuns.

The first to bat would be Maddox Mandino, but he would be intentionally walked, bringing Duncan Pastore up. Pastore would hit a single bringing Mandino to second.

Second baseman John Taylor would strikeout swinging, the Cajuns first out of the inning. Next would be pinch hitter sophomore Luke Yuhasz. During this at bat both Pastore and Mandino would steal, both successfully advancing to second and third. 

Yuhasz would then manage to reach first due to a throwing error. This would allow the other two runners to advance, including Mandino who would bring in the tying run. 

With a score of 2–2 and only one out the Cajuns had a chance to win with a runner in scoring position. Higgs would be intentionally walked to load the bases, bringing junior catcher Jose Torres to bat. This was Torres first game with the Cajuns, having transferred from San Jacinto JC this past year. 

Torres would swing at the first pitch, missing it for a strike. The next pitch though he would make contact with, sending it deep into left field where it would be caught. As soon as it was caught, Pastore would tag up and advance home for the win. 

The first game of the season was an excellent start grabbing a win despite the rain that had fallen for most of the game. The second game though would not go as well.

At one in the afternoon the Cajuns and Raiders would meet once again at Russo Park. This game had far more emphasis on batting as both teams would score more than the combined score of the night before.

At pitcher the Cajuns would start freshman Chase Morgan who did well until he got to the third inning.

After getting the first two batters out the third batter would manage to get a single to left field. This would start a series which allowed two batters to score runs while an error by center fielder Conor Higgs would allow two more runners to score. 

Morgan would manage to stop the bleeding though striking out a batter to end the top half of the third. That would be his last inning though as he was taken off at the beginning of the fourth.

The Cajuns had scored two runs in the second inning thanks to a single by Josh Alexander and RBIs by both Trey LeFleur and Luke Yuhasz.

The fourth inning would see both teams score runs as Wright State scored two runs and Louisiana replied by scoring three runs of their own.

Both teams would score one more run in the final five innings bringing the game to a final score of 7–6.

On Sunday the Cajuns would finish off the series by claiming their second win 5–3 over the Raiders. The Cajuns would pull away for the win in the bottom of the eighth with back to back homers by Luke Yuhasz and Clay Wargo.

They would extend their lead an additional run in the eighth with an RBI from Josh Alexander bringing in Trey LaFleur who had singled in the previous at bat.

The Cajuns start the year off with an overall record of 2–1 after winning the series against Wright State.. The Cajuns will be back in Lafayette for a series against Rice this weekend starting with a game on Friday, Feb. 23.