Privateers Baseball Faces No. 16 Ragin' Cajuns on Tuesday

NEW ORLEANS AT LOUISIANA-LAFAYETTE
TUESDAY, MARCH 1 | 6 PM
M.L. TIGUE MOORE FIELD | LAFAYETTE, LA.

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The University of New Orleans baseball team is out to its best start since the last millennium at 6-1. Next up for Coach Blake Dean's bunch is a road test against the No. 16 Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns (4-3) on Tuesday at Tigue Moore Field. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m.
 
The Privateers are very familiar with the Cajuns, having played them 151 times in program history. Louisiana-Lafayette has the advantage in the all-time series with a record of 81-70. UNO's last victory came over the Cajuns in Lafayette by an 8-7 count in April 2014. Tuesday will be the first of two meetings between the teams.
 
A win would send UNO to their best start since the 1991 Privateers who won eight of their first nine games of the season. The Privateers are coming off a weekend sweep of Valparaiso where they punched across 23 runs and acquired two more saves from Daniel Martinez. The senior hurler has now recorded four saves on the season.
 
Solid performances from the bullpen helped to highlight the weekend. Jarred Taylor pitched all three games and allowed one run over four innings while allowing no walks. Keaton Brewer held Valparaiso to one hit over his first three innings of relief on Sunday and the Privateers rallied back from an early deficit, which put Brewer in line for his first win of the season. On Sunday, UNO did not issue a walk between four pitchers.
 
"We tell these guys each time you get on the mound it's an opportunity to get better," said Dean. "Keaton stopped the bleeding for us Sunday and hopefully he'll be able to continue to build some confidence. Our mid-week games will be dictated by how our weekends go but I can see him starting some mid-week games down the line."
 
Chaz Boyer and Aaron Palmer enter the week tied for the team lead in RBIs. Both have recorded 10 and Palmer knocked in a run in each of the Privateers' four games last week. Boyer shares the team lead in extra base hits with four.
 
The Privateers also took the weekend to get the running game in gear. UNO stole five bases as a team against Valparaiso including three in one inning. Ryan Calloway registered his first two steals of the season. Calloway led the team a year ago in steals with nine.
 
"We still got picked off twice this weekend which is unacceptable so those are things we have to improve on," said Dean. "However, if we can move our runners over and use speed to our advantage that gives us better opportunities and will be more beneficial to manufacturing runs."
 
Louisiana-Lafayette enters with a 4-3 mark after a rugged weekend against tough competition in the Houston College Classic over the weekend. After losing games to TCU and Texas Tech over the first two days, the Cajuns ended the weekend on a high note when a two-run homer by Stefan Trosclair in the eighth inning sent them to a 4-2 win over Rice.
 
Tony Robichaux is in his 22^nd season with the team. Robichaux has surpassed the 1,000-win mark for his career and has 778 victories to date in Lafayette. Under Robichaux's guidance, the Cajuns have made the NCAA Regionals in each of the last three seasons.
 
In preseason, the Cajuns were favored to win the Sun Belt as they received eight of 11 first place votes. In the opening weekend of the season, Louisiana-Lafayette hosted another Southland foe in Sam Houston State and completed a three-game sweep.
 
Season tickets for the 2016 campaign are available for as low as $125 and single-game tickets start at $5. For additional information, contact the UNO Atheltics Ticket Office at (504) 280-GAME (4263) or log on to the internet at http://www.unoprivateers.com.
 
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