Despite the mistakes made in the first series of the season against San Jose State, the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns would already be met with one of their toughest challenges of the year, as the No. 23 Nebraska Cornhuskers came to town.
It would be a tough challenge for the Cajuns to take down the Cornhuskers, who had already beaten a top 25 team in No. 15 Vanderbilt the week before. As long as mistakes could be cut down, then it could be a competitive game.
Many mistakes were made on Friday (Feb. 21) as the Cornhuskers took game one of the series 6–1.
That scoreline is not indicative to the quality of the Cornhusker bats though, instead it is a reflection of terrible fielding. The Cajuns finished the night with four errors, all four of them leading to runs scored by the Cornhuskers.
Louisiana’s fielders somehow found a way to screw up even the simplest of routine plays. This would be very apparent in the very first inning. The Cornhuskers had runners in scoring position at second and third with their four hole, Case Sanderson, up to bat.
On a 3–2 pitch Sanderson would hit into left field, the ball dropping just before Connor Higgs. Higgs would throw to third baseman Connor Cuff as a runner rounded third. Cuff dropped the catch which would have led to a run if the runner did not slip rounding third.
The bobbled catch did see Sanderson take off for second as Cuff got control of the ball. Cuff would throw toward second, but the throw was short and bounced into Lee Amedee who was unable to bring it in. That allowed the runner at third to run in for the Cornhuskers to go up 2–0.
Cuff would make another error on a routine play, snatching up a ground ball for an easy out at first but dropping the ball before he could throw. Both Amedee and Higgs would make errors of their own later in the game leading to runs.
The only good play from a fielder came at the top of the sixth when catcher Jose Torres showed off his arm with a strike to the shortstop to get a Cornhusker out on an attempted steal.
Pitching was questionable from Chase Morgan and the bullpen that followed after he was pulled at the top of the fifth.
Morgan was not on the top of his game, giving up five hits in four innings of play. He also went down having given up four runs, but only one of those was an earned run. Morgan was pitching from the stretch or was just tense in general most of the night, with his fielders doing little to help him.
He did record six strikeouts with only one walk, though it does not reflect well when looking at his pitch count. It makes sense that he was pulled after the fourth, since he threw 71 pitches in only four innings.James Trimble came on to replace Morgan, but he looked tense as well. He would be pulled after throwing 32 pitches in 1.1 innings and giving up three straight walks.
Parker Dillhoff would finish the sixth inning for the Cajuns in only three pitches before being pulled at the top of the seventh for Tate Hess. Hess did well in the seventh inning but would give up two runs in the eighth causing him to be pulled as well.
The game would be closed by a trio of pitchers Matt Gaither, Alex Rosario and Griffin Hebert. They combined in allowing no hits or runs for the rest of the game. Offensively, the Cajuns could not get the bats going, only recording four hits and failing to advance runners once someone got on base.
The most effective batter was Amedee who went two for three at the plate. This included the Cajuns’ one run which was an Amedee solo shot out of right field in the bottom of the second. Right fielder Brooks Wright also went two for three at the plate but was unable to get home.
The Cajuns would get a chance to redeem themselves on Saturday (Feb. 22) as Louisiana and Nebraska played a doubleheader, the first game starting at 1pm.
Louisiana did not take Friday’s disaster to heart, or if they did, they used it to fuel their 4–1 upset over the Cornhuskers. The Cajuns did a complete 180 of the previous game, playing perfect, mistake-free baseball with excellent pitching off the mound with good production from the bats.
All of the credit goes to the Louisiana pitchers Blake McGehee and Dylan Theut, who combined to pitch all nine innings, only allowing four hits and one run to the Cornhusker batters. Not only that, but they combined for 13 strikeouts, seven from McGehee and six from Theut.
The Cornhuskers simply could not find an answer to hit off of the pair as they looked completely different from their season debuts against San Jose State the week prior. Nebraska could not even hope for a bad pitch as neither pitcher gave up a single walk the entire game, forcing the Cornhuskers to either strike out or get put out.
The pitchers did not have to worry about scoring as the Cajun batters started showing what they are capable of.
The scoring started off in the first, similar to Friday’s game. Unlike Nebraska though, the Cajuns did not get their run off of bad fielding. Brooks Wright, batting first, got on base with a walk.
From there, he would steal second and advance to third with the help of Caleb Stelly. He would find home with a center field single from Lee Amedee, giving the Cajuns a 1–0 lead.
That lead would increase in the bottom of the fourth when Connor Higgs would swing on a 2-1 pitch and send it out of right center for his first home run of the season, helping the Cajuns go up 2–0.
The last two runs for the Cajuns would come in the seventh after Higgs would hit a double down the right field line. A wild pitch would send him home and see Casey Artigues reach first despite striking out swinging.
Mark Collins would pinch run for Artigues and would get home following yet another wild pitch by Nebraska.
Nebraska’s lone run would come in the ninth but would not be enough to spark a comeback from the Cornhuskers.
The two would once again meet for the second game of the doubleheader a few hours later to decide the series.
And the Cajuns kept things rolling as they swept the now tired Cornhuskers 10–2, winning the series against Nebraska 2–1.
Louisiana turned 13 hits into 10 runs, getting off to a hot start with five runs in the second inning, from there the Cajuns never let Nebraska sniff the lead as they continued to score throughout the game.
The Cajuns were also helped by three Cornhusker fielding errors and the fact that Louisiana forced them to use their bullpen, making Nebraska bring out seven pitchers throughout the entire game.
Louisiana, though, had only one man on the mound. Andrew Herrmann, the 6’3” lefty senior, pitched a complete game in his first start of the season. He refused to give up the mound throughout the game and pitched spectacularly.
Herrmann, in nine innings pitched, threw 117 pitches and only allowed five hits and two earned runs.
He also finished the game with nine strikeouts, with only one walk given up to Nebraska. The only thing to tarnish this incredible game was an error made by Herrmann.
The Cajuns finished the weekend playing excellent baseball, all the more spectacular when compared to the first game of the season.
If the team can continue to play in the form they showed Saturday then this team might be able to make some noise in summer.