Louisiana Lafayette vs Western Kentucky - Printable Version
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Louisiana Lafayette vs Western Kentucky - Anhil8tor - 05-24-2005
Aeropostale Sun Belt Tournament
Louisiana Lafayette vs Western Kentucky - Anhil8tor - 05-24-2005
Robichaux gives nod to Salazar in opener
MIAMI - Jered Salazar may be a surprise opening-game starter for the University of Louisiana baseball team at the Sun Belt Conference Tournament on Wednesday, but to Ragin' Cajun coach Tony Robichaux it makes perfect sense.
Robichaux, whose team arrived here late Monday to prepare for its scheduled 5:30 p.m. (CDT) Wednesday opener against Western Kentucky, tabbed the senior right-hander from Breaux Bridge and Teurlings Catholic to start against the Hilltoppers.
"We felt going into last weekend that Jered had been throwing well and had good rhythm, and that's why we didn't start him Sunday against Western," Robichaux said. "We felt we needed a fresh arm going into the first game this week, and nobody else could safely start for us."
The decision was made easier last Friday, when the opener of the regular season-ending series at WKU was postponed until Saturday because of travel problems with the umpiring crew. Regular Friday and Saturday starters Kevin Ardoin and Austin Faught pitched in Saturday's twinbill, where a split insured the Cajuns (45-15, 16-8) of the Sun Belt title.
"Once they moved the first game back, we knew neither Ardoin or Faught would have enough rest," Robichaux said. "But Jered's a senior and we wanted to put it in his hands. He wanted an inning Saturday and we got that for him."
Salazar (6-1, 2.70) has won his last four starts, all of them mid-week non-conference games against Northwestern State, McNeese State, Sam Houston State and Southeastern La. The last of those was a seven-inning, three-hit shutout performance against SLU, and he allowed only five earned runs in the other three starts combined.
Robichaux said Faught (11-0), the Sun Belt's only unbeaten hurler among regular starters, will start Thursday's second game of the tournament. UL will meet the winner of Wednesday's 8:30 a.m. (CDT) tournament opener between fourth-seeded Middle Tennessee and fifth-seeded New Mexico State if the Cajuns win their opener, and will face the MT-NMSU loser in an elimination game if UL loses its opener to WKU.
The Cajuns lost two of three last weekend at WKU, their only Sun Belt series loss of the season and the finales of their only losing week of the entire season (1-3). Ardoin (10-3) lost a series opener for the second straight weekend.
"You can't let the past dictate your future," Robichaux said. "My biggest concern is getting Ardoin back throwing well, that's for sure. It's been a long season. This team has been very consistent all year, hadn't had a losing week all year until last week. It happened at the end instead of the beginning, but we have to move forward and not look backward."
RANKINGS: The Cajuns slipped in all four of the national polls this week, falling completely out of the Baseball America magazine poll after being ranked 18th there last week. UL is ranked 18th in the USA Today Baseball Weekly/ESPN coaches poll, down from 16th last week, and is 23rd in the Collegiate Baseball magazine poll, down from 19th last week. The National Collegiate Baseball Writers poll, where the Cajuns were ranked 10th last week, comes out today.
RPI STUFF: Going 1-3 last week hurt UL even more in the unofficial RPI listings compiled by Warren Nolan. The Cajuns took a tumble to No. 35 in that list after ranking in the top 20 two weeks ago. The Sun Belt as a conference also slipped a notch to No. 16 in the unofficial league RPI rankings this week.
One positive, and something the NCAA committee will look at for seeding, is that UL is 6-0 against teams in the unofficial RPI top 50. But the Cajuns are 22-7 against teams ranked 101-200 and 7-3 against teams 201 and higher.
Three other Sun Belt teams are in the Warren Nolan top 100 RPI list, with Fla. International ranked 55th, South Alabama 64th and Middle Tennessee 94th.
OTHER NATIONAL STUFF: The Cajuns rank third nationally in winning margin, winning their games by an average of 4.3 runs per game. UL is eighth nationally in scoring, averaging 8.5 runs per game. The 45 wins is tied for fourth nationally with Wichita State, with Tulane and Florida State each with 47 and Nebraska with 46, and UL is 10th nationally in winning percentage (.750).
PROJECTIONS: Southeastern Baseball will release its final NCAA bracket projections today. The web site (http://www.sebaseball.com) had the Cajuns as the No. 2 seed in the New Orleans regional (behind No. 1 seed Tulane) in its projections last Tuesday. The real NCAA field and bracket will be announced Monday afternoon.
LAGNIAPPE: The All-Sun Belt team will be announced today at 6 p.m. at a pre-tournament banquet held at FIU's Golden Panther Arena ... The Cajuns flew straight to Miami Monday from Nashville following the series at Bowling Green, Ky., over the weekend, and didn't arrive at its headquarters hotel until well after 9 a.m. (EDT) Monday ... This is the first time FIU has hosted the league tournament, and host teams have won the event only twice (South Alabama in 1996 and 2000) ... The last three tournaments have been won by No. 6 seeds (New Mexico State in 2002 and Middle Tennessee in 2003) and No. 7 seeds (Western Kentucky last year) ... Working against WKU in Wednesday's opener against UL is the fact that no team has won back-to-back tournaments since USA in 2000-01.
Louisiana Lafayette vs Western Kentucky - Anhil8tor - 05-25-2005
Bet people...
Louisiana Lafayette vs Western Kentucky - Anhil8tor - 05-26-2005
chance to make some change
Louisiana Lafayette vs Western Kentucky - Anhil8tor - 05-26-2005
son of a bitch
Louisiana Lafayette vs Western Kentucky - Michman - 05-26-2005
you fukking suck! These bastards have cost me almost a million in two fukking games.
Louisiana Lafayette vs Western Kentucky - Anhil8tor - 05-26-2005
Michman Wrote:you fukking suck! These bastards have cost me almost a million in two fukking games.
Yeah I know.. first time a #1 seed has fallen to a #8 seed. Today Austin Faught (Sun Belt Player of the year) goes against New Mexico State..