Cajuns Beat North Alabama 11-1 in Game 1
Louisiana's offense recorded 17 hits and scored in seven of their eight innings to beat North Alabama 11-1 in game one of their weekend series.
With the victory, the Cajuns are now 24-20 this season.
The Cajuns scored one run in each of the first four innings. Brennan Breaux, Jonathan Brandon, and Connor Kimple each hit RBI-doubles early on, and Ben Fitzgerald used a groundout to record his 24th RBI of the season and give Louisiana an early 4-0 lead.
Starting pitcher Spencer Arrighetti had a quality night for the Cajuns, allowing only five hits over six scoreless innings with eight strikeouts and no walks. He was given the win to improve his record to 7-4.
In their sole scoreless inning, the Cajuns had three hits in the fifth inning, but a runner caught stealing and a baserunner hit by a single kept them off the board for the first time.
The team responded with three-straight doubles in the sixth inning, and they used a double-steal to put up the first multi-run inning of the night. Three runs scored and they had a commanding 7-0 lead.
Kimple recorded his fourth hit and knocked in his third run in the seventh inning, and Tyler Robertson, the only Cajun starter without a hit in the game, broke that streak in style with a solo home run in the eighth.
Louisiana scored their second three-run inning in the eighth and had an 11-0 lead. In the top of the ninth, a two-out triple brought home a runner who had reached base on a wild pitch strikeout to break the shutout, but the Cajuns won 11-1.
Louisiana's offense recorded eight walks with only six strikeouts, and the pitching staff finished with 12 strikeouts and no walks given up. The Cajuns stranded 13 batters, but the offense was relentless in putting runners on base to put pressure on the Lions' pitching staff.
Head coach Matt Deggs said that he liked the performance that his offense displayed in the series opener.
"I thought we came out and played really well tonight," Deggs said. "We've been swinging it well. What I liked was we hit a lot of balls hard tonight."
Deggs specifically complimented Kimple, Breaux, and Brandon: the three players that got them started early on and ended up having excellent nights.
"Two older guys in the middle have stepped up their game, and I thought Jonathan Brandon had an outstanding game tonight," Deggs said.
Kimple finished with four hits, a walk, and three RBIs in his five plate appearances. Breaux went 3-5 with a walk and a RBI, and Brandon went 1-2 with three walks, one RBI, and two runs scored.
Up next, the Cajuns look to win the weekend series by taking game two against North Alabama tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. Connor Cooke will pitch for Louisiana.