NCAA Regional Game 1: Louisiana-Lafayette 5, Ohio State 4
Jun 01, 2007 | Baseball
June 01, 2007
Xavier Alexander's double into the left-center gap in the bottom of the ninth knocked in the winning run and propelled Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns to a dramatic 5-4 win over Ohio State in first round action at the NCAA College Station Regional on the Texas A&M campus.
Devon Bourque's two out single off reliever Rory Meister (4-7) set the table for Alexander, who entered the game in the eighth as a pinch hitter. Alexander lined the first pitch into the gap and Bourque raced home all the way from first, easily beating the throw to the plate.
It looked as though the second-seeded Cajuns might squander another chance in the ninth inning after Nolan Gisclair singled with one out, but was thrown out trying to steal second. Bourque then lined his single, and Alexander delivered his game winner for Louisiana (44-15).
The Cajuns got on the board in the first inning when Josh Logan beat out an infield hit, was sacrificed to second by Matt Hicks, went to third on a wild pitch by Buckeyes' starter Jake Hale and scored on Jonathan Lucroy's groundout to short and the Cajuns took 1-0 lead.
The RBI was the 181st of Lucroy's career, tying him with Damian Grossie for the all time Cajuns record.
Ohio State (37-23) came back against Cajuns starter Danny Farquhar in the third to take the lead. Tony Kennedy led off with a single, and went to second on a single by Cory Rupert. Cory Kovanda's sacrifice bunt moved the runners into scoring position before leadoff hitter Jacob Howell singled home Kennedy. Matt Angle's double up the right center field gap scored two more and gave the Buckeyes a 3-1 lead.
The Cajuns tied the game in the fourth on Gisclair's two-run homer to center and then took the lead on a single by Bourque, a sacrifice by William Long and a single by Logan to make it 4-3.
But Ohio State came right back in the fifth when Kovanda doubled off the third base bag. Howell bunted safely to third and Angle walked to load the bases and end the day for Farquhar. But reliever Matt Pilgreen (7-0) allowed only one of the inherited runners to score and the game was tied at 4-4, setting the stage for the dramatic ninth.
Pilgreen was sparkling in relief, allowing just four hits in five innings. He didn't walk a batter and struck out two.
Hale kept the Cajuns at bay through 7.2 innings, as the Cajuns had plenty of chances, but stranded 13 baserunners.
Gisclair had four hits to lead the 13-hit Cajuns attack, while Logan, Bourque and Alexander had two apiece.
OHIO STATE HEAD COACH BOB TODD: "Obviously the way we lost isn't the way we planned for it to happen. It was a great ballgame. We had the lead early, but I give a lot of credit to Lafayette because they came back and tied it up. We did some things very, very well, but we didn't execute on offense as well as we needed to and that came back to haunt us. We had some opportunities early that we didn't take advantage of."
OHIO STATE STARTING PITCHER JAKE HALE: "Louisiana-Lafayette is a top-notch team and a great hitting team. I only had three strikeouts. They were very aggressive. That's what came into play when they came up to the play, they were ready to swing. But when they got two strikes on them, they were a very good defensive team at the plate."
LOUISIANA-LAFAYETTE HEAD COACH TONY ROBICHAUX: "Going into the game, we knew that we had to pitch and play defense. That's kind of been our m.o. since I've been there, to try to pitch and play defense and try to get timely hitting after that. Our biggest issue today was not getting timely hitting until actually the end when 'X' (Xavier Alexander) got a big hit for us. I thought (starting pitcher) Danny (Farquhar) was not as sharp as he usually is, gave up a 3-run inning, but from there Matt (Pilgreen) came in and did a great job and held them right there for us until we got a hit that meant something."
(On winning pitcher Matt Pilgreen's performance...) "The big thing we wanted from our relief pitcher is to change the momentum of the game. What Matt did for us was change the momentum of the game. He kept putting up zeros for us until we could get a chance to score those runs. If he doesn't come in and do his job, then we probably lose this game. That's what a good relief pitcher does, comes in and changes the momentum of the game."
ULL PINCH HITTER XAVIER ALEXANDER: (on the game-winning hit...) "I was just really looking for something that I could drive. I knew the guy threw a lot of sliders early in the game, but I got a fast ball and I just took the best swing I could possibly put on it."
ULL WINNING PITCHER MATT PILGREEN: "They really sat on the pitches away. Low and away is a tough pitch to get to. They hit a lot of ground balls. Credit the defense. They turned three or four double plays."
