LSU welcomes back Cajuns with victory

• By RANDY ROSETTA
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Apr 30, 2008 - Page: 1C - UPDATED: 12:30 a.m.

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Damage control was at the heart of the matter Tuesday night when the LSU and Louisiana-Lafayette baseball teams dusted off a rivalry that stood dormant for nearly six years because of bad blood.

The Tigers minimized the damage the Ragin’ Cajuns inflicted, first with freshman pitcher Austin Ross and reliever Daniel Bradshaw and later with center fielder Leon Landry when he utilized every square inch of Alex Box Stadium real estate.

ULL, on the other hand, couldn’t contain LSU when its bats finally came alive in a big inning — the only big inning the Tigers got or needed in a 5-3 triumph in front of a crowd of 4,050.

Ross bent often in the first three innings, but the Cajuns (22-23) couldn’t bust through and scratched out only a single run in each of their first three at-bats.

That seemed safe for a while because ULL pitcher Brent Solich had the Tigers (29-16-1) tied in knots. Solich entered the game with a 7.05 ERA, but buzzed through the first nine LSU batters unscathed. Michael Hollander snapped that streak with a leadoff walk to start the fourth, but Solich escaped any damage by getting three outs — aided by dazzling play by second baseman Jordan Poirrier.
 
As vulnerable as Ross looked and as razor-sharp as Solich was, the tide turned for both teams in the fifth.

Bradshaw took over for Ross to start the fifth and tossed the first of four scoreless frames.

Still within shouting distance, trailing 3-0, the Tigers offense surged to life in their half of the fifth. Micah Gibbs slapped the first pitch to right for single, Matt Clark poked Solich’s first offering just inside the first-base bag for a double to put runners on second and third. And DJ LeMahieu snaked the first pitch he got past ULL third baseman Matt Hicks.

In three swings, LSU went from hitless to down 3-2 and with a head of steam.

“There’s such a different feeling about our team now than there was a week ago,” said Tigers coach Paul Mainieri after his team logged a sixth straight victory. “We fall behind 2-3 runs and it’s like there’s absolutely zero panic in the dugout. … We have a lot of confidence in our offense to string some things together.”

The Cajuns helped the cause as well.

Speedy LSU center fielder Leon Landry dropped a bunt down to move LeMahieu to third. Hicks scooped the ball up cleanly but threw wildly to first, allowing LeMahieu to scoot home with the tying run and Landry to chug all the way to third. Landry’s bunt also came on the first pitch.

“We just knew from playing the game that we had to get more aggressive,” Landry said. “They got a couple of runs and we were still being sluggish with the bats. We came out in the fifth and got things going and caught a few breaks. We picked up on the sequence of pitches he went through and saw the pitches we wanted to hit.”

Solich got Jared Mitchell on an infield popup and should have retired Hollander on a chopper to third. But Hicks bobbled the ball, permitting Landry to score the go-ahead run. Hollander swiped second, advanced to third on a groundout and added the Tigers’ fifth run on Derek Helenihi’s rocket to right on a 1-2 pitch.