Photo by Dawson Eiserloh
The Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns had a great outing from the pitching team to calm Jackson State’s hot bats in a 7-0 win Tuesday night at Russo Park. Blake McGehee returned and Cooper Rawls shone in an impressive performance as the Cajuns played their penultimate game before the conference game.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
Louisiana started right-hander Blake McGehee, who made his first appearance since starting against Rice in opening weekend. McGehee was sharp astute in his first inning of work, fixing the Tigers. The Cajun offense wasted no time in the bottom half as Max Marusak singled, stole second and third and scored on a Kyle Debarge ground-out. A few base runners followed before John Taylor cleared the bases to deep center field with an inside-the-park home run. The Cajuns led 4-0 after an inning.
- Advertisement -
Things would settle down for a while after the first inning. McGehee went two strong innings for the Cajuns and handed it off to Cooper Rawls, who was also effective. It wasn’t until the end of the fifth that the Cajuns would extend the lead. They scored a run thanks to a walk, a miss, a stolen base and a sacrificial fly from Julian Brock to score Debarge and make it 5-0.
At the end of the seventh, Louisiana would add a few more runs, one over a sacrificial fly and the other from a wild pitch. However, it was the pitching that stole the show in this game. Cajuns pitchers Blake McGehee, Cooper Rawls, JT Etheridge and Taylor Parrett collectively shut out the Tigers’ offense, which had scored more than nine runs per game. Rawls was as effective as anyone, going five innings with just one hit allowed, batting out six and not conceding a run. The Cajuns wrapped it up with a 7-0 win.
BIG NUMBER: 0
Cajun pitching allowed 0 runs for Jackson State, a team that had previously averaged over nine runs per game.
PLAYER: Cooper Rawls
- Advertisement -
Rawls was effective and gave the Cajuns some length. He went five strong innings and helped save the bullpen in a busy week for Louisiana.
UP NEXT: The Cajuns begin this weekend with a three-game series against Arkansas State at home, starting Friday at 6:00 p.m.
Source
