ULL beats LSU in shortened game

The 10th ranked University of Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns baseball team knocked off top-ranked LSU 4-1 in a rain shortened affair Tuesday night at Alex Box Stadium.
The win was the eighth straight for Louisiana-Lafayette (8-1), while the Tigers (7-1) were handed their first loss of the year. The last time Louisiana-Lafayette defeated a top-ranked team was in 2000 when the Ragin’ Cajuns took two out of three games from South Carolina in the Columbia Super Regional to go to the College World Series.
“We played well for the length of time that we had to play,” ULL head coach Tony Robichaux said in a news release. “It’s a shame that two good teams didn’t get a chance to play it out, but we will take it. We made plays when we needed to, especially with the length of the game in jeopardy.”
Junior pitcher Greg Milhorn earned his second win of the season, holding the Tigers to one run on four hits in five innings.
LSU starter Cody Glenn (1-1) was tabbed with the loss after surrendering three runs on five hits in four innings.
Tuesday’s loss ended LSU’s 34-game win streak in regular-season mid-week games and its 32-game win streak against Louisiana schools. The Tigers’ last loss in both categories came to Northwestern State on April 15, 2011, in Alex Box Stadium.
Offensively, Louisiana-Lafayette outhit the Tigers 6-4. ULL centerfielder Seth Harrison had the only extra base hit for the Ragin’ Cajuns with his RBI-triple in the third inning.
The Cajuns broke into the scoring column in the top of the third on a triple to center by Harrison, scoring Greg Davis from first. In the next at bat, shortstop Blake Trahan brought Harrison home on a sac fly to left for a 2-0 Cajuns’ lead.
In the bottom half of the third, Trahan made a great diving stop on a ball hit deep in the hole by Mark Laird and cut down Kramer Robertson at the plate to end the inning.
Louisiana-Lafayette added a run in the top of the fourth when catcher Mike Strentz came in to score on a single to third by second baseman Jace Conrad. Strentz led off the inning with a single and then moved to third after a sac bunt by Ryan Leonards and a fly to right by Evan Powell.
The Tigers cut the advantage to 3-1 in the bottom of the fifth. After a leadoff triple down the right field line by Andrew Stevenson, Tyler Moore drove a sac fly to left to score Stevenson.
The Cajuns made it 4-1 in the top of the sixth when Tyler Girouard brought home Ryan Wilson from third on a ball hit to second.
With two runners on and only one out in the top of the sixth, the skies opened up and forced the completion of the game.
“It’s a strange feeling to lose a game when you don’t get to play the full nine innings, but those are the rules of baseball,” LSU coach Paul Mainieri said in a news release. “I never expected us to go 56-0 this season, and there’s no shame in losing a rain-shortened game to a Top 10 team. You have to credit ULL with playing very well, and things just never seemed to go our way the whole night. We saw some issues that we need to address, so we’ll go back to practice on Thursday and start preparing for the weekend.”
Louisiana-Lafayette returns to action Friday at 6 p.m. in the first of three games against Alabama at M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field in Lafayette.
LSU returns to action Friday at home against Yale in a 7 p.m. contest.