Louisiana-Lafayette walked onto Cougar Field with a fresh memory of the 6-1 drubbing that it plastered all over the Cougars on March 3 in Lafayette, La.
The Ragin’ Cajuns were cruising through their schedule, enjoying a four-game win streak, so naturally the Cougars wanted revenge by putting a damper on their success and sending them home with a bitter loss.
The Cougars did just that, racking up 11 hits and receiving solid pitching from freshman starter Mo Wiley, who gave up four runs on five hits in 5 1/3 innings, to turn back the Ragin’ Cajuns, 6-4, on Tuesday.
Closer Chase Dempsay followed Wiley’s solid performance with 3 2/3 strong innings, giving up no runs on two hits. Outfielder Zak Presley was glad to see his team avenge the embarrassing loss in Lafayette.
‘The last time we played (ULL) we weren’t on our game at all and we didn’t play the way we were capable of,’ Presley said. ‘We really wanted to get back at those guys, and we just played good fundamental baseball. That was the key (to winning).’
The Ragin’ Cajuns got on the board in the top of the second inning when Chad Keefer pushed a two-out, 2-1 offering just over the left-field wall for a two-run homer, giving ULL a 2-0 lead.
However, that advantage did not last long as the Cougars (7-16) answered in the bottom of the inning. Ty Stuckey led off with a double to left field and advanced to third on a David Murphy single. Blake Kelso’ s sacrifice fly to right field scored Stuckey, cutting ULL’s lead to 2-1.
The Cougars added another run in the third when Dempsay led off with a double down the left-field line and advanced to third on a balk. He scored on Caleb Ramsey’s RBI single, knotting the game at 2.
The Cougars kept the threat going when Taylor White hit a one-out single that advanced Ramsey to second. Ramsey moved to third on a passed ball, prompting ULL (10-10-1) to bring in left-handed reliever Blake Haagen.
Haagen induced a fly out to right field by Stuckey that advanced White to third and scored Ramsey, giving the Cougars a 3-2 lead. Haagen recovered and struck out Murphy to end the inning.
The Cougars increased their lead in the fourth when Kelso hit a one-out double down the left-field line and scored on a Presley double to right field, pushing UH’s lead to 4-2.
In the fifth, the Cougars upped their advantage to 6-2 on David Murphy’s two-run double. After White singled to centerfield and Stuckey drew a walk, Murphy’s double brought them both home. The rest was in the hands of the pitching staff, which gave up two more runs in the sixth, but finished the job with a scoreless seventh, eighth and ninth.
‘I was able to spot my fastball tonight, and I’m buying into Coach Noble’s way of hitting the low and outside corner pitch and (I’m) just throwing more strikes,’ Wiley said.'(the coaches) have been working with me (on being able to throw all of my pitches again) a lot since coming off of Tommy John surgery.’
