Louisiana began conference play this past weekend at home against the best team in the Sun Belt, No. 21 Troy. Both the batters and pitchers struggled at various points of the series, leading to the Cajuns dropping their first conference series before Sunday’s game.
Game one on Friday night would be a close game for the Cajuns, falling to the Trojans 4–3 despite going up 2–0 after the first inning.
The Cajuns managed to start off the game getting runners on base thanks to fielding errors and bad pitching from Troy. This chance was seized by Jose Torres who drove a ball through the center to send Brooks Wright and Caleb Stelly home to bring the Cajuns up 2–0.
Both Troy and Louisiana would go scoreless in the second before the Trojans would take the lead in the third. Starting pitcher Matthew Holzhammer, who had been performing well in the start thus far, walked two batters before giving up an easy pitch that would leave the park for a three-run homer.
Holzhammer would finish the inning and would start the fourth. An easy ground out to short would be ruined by an error by shortstop Connor Cuff, putting a Trojan on base. An attempt to steal would be ended by the arm of Torres who would throw out the would-be stealer from behind home plate.
Holzhammer would strike out the next batter, but would give up his second home run of the night, this prompted coach Matt Deggs to make a change on the mound. Replacing Holzhammer would be Andrew Herrmann.
Herrmann would give up a single before getting the third out to end the fourth. He would pitch the rest of the game, only allowing three hits and giving up no runs. He would strike out six batters while only walking one, a truly excellent relief effort by the senior.
Sadly, though, the Cajun batters could not repay the great effort of Herrmann on the mound. Louisiana would only score one more run in the bottom of the fifth.
Conor Higgs would reach first on a fielder’s choice, stealing second while Stelly was up to bat. Stelly would then hit a double in left field, Higgs getting home from second to make it 4–3.
In the remaining four innings, Louisiana would fail to score despite getting four runners on base, continuing a season long trend of stranding runners.
Louisiana as a whole struggled with batting, with no batters getting more than one hit in the game. The most productive of these one hit wonders was Stelly and Torres, who both had RBIs with their hits.
Game two on Saturday, which had been moved a bit later for projected bad weather that never arrived, was much of the same in terms of bad pitching. Louisiana would lose 8–5, their third straight loss.
JR Tollett would get the start on the mound and would perform well in his first three innings, only allowing a run while Louisiana’s batters scored four runs for a comfortable 4–1 lead.
The game would be completely lost in the fourth inning as Tollett, despite not being under any pressure, would sell the game in its entirety. He would allow five runs, three in the fourth and two more in the fifth before being taken off the mound for Riley Marcotte.
Marcotte would perform well in the time he pitched, only giving up a hit in 1.2 innings and striking out two batters before being pulled in Aidan Grab.
Grab would finish out the game though his performance was far from satisfactory. He would allow two runs despite only allowing one hit. This was due to walking three batters and hitting one with a pitch.
Despite the struggles on the mound, the Cajun batters gave it their best shot at trying to bring the game back after taking an early lead.
Jose Torres was the best at the plate once again for Louisiana, recording three hits in five at bats including a pair of RBIs. Conor Higgs and Caleb Stelly were just as good at the top of the lineup, each going two for four at the plate. Higgs batted in a run and found home both times he got on base thanks to the batters following behind him.
The biggest problem for Louisiana at the plate is the back part of the lineup, with only two of the last four batters recorded a hit in the entire game.
The Cajuns now sit at 8–12 on the season, a start many did not expect at the beginning of the season. They have not played game three of the series as of this writing.
Louisiana needs to figure things out quickly going into conference play if they want to make a regional again this year.