FAU Takes Game One From Cajuns 7-3

Tony Robichaux has said many times that slugging percentage and on-base percentage play a much bigger role in a baseball game than the number of hits a team gets.

Friday night, Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns got thirteen hits, twelve of them singles, and drew one walk.

Florida Atlantic had nine hits, but three of them were home runs and they drew five walks.

Guess who won?

FAU (17-10, 6-1 Sun Belt) hit two homers for three runs in the third inning to take the lead for good and defeated Louisiana (13-12, 3-4) 7-3 at FAU Stadium in Boca Raton, FL in the first game of a three game series.

The Cajuns took a 2-0 lead early, getting two out hits from Daniel Nichols in the first inning and Tyler Frederick in the second before FAU went to work against Cajuns' starter Jordan Nicholson (3-2.)  Mike Albaladejo led off the third with a single before designated hitter Robert Buckley homered to right to tie the game at 2-2.  After Nicholson got the next two hitters, right fielder Cory Keller hit a home run off the batters' eye in center field to give FAU a 3-2 lead.

The Cajuns had five hits in the first two innings off Owls' starter Ryan Garton (5-2), but stranded four base runners.  Garton settled in after that, allowing just an unearned run in the seventh, before giving way to Ahmed Garcia.  The left-hander limited the Cajuns to two hits the rest of the way to record his first save of the season.

FAU padded its lead to 4-2 in the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Albaladejo after Geoff Jimenez led off with an infield hit and Nathan Pittman laid down a perfect bunt to put two on with nobody out.  FAU added two more runs in the sixth on a homer by Mike Spano leading off the inning, and added a second run off reliever Jordan Harrison on an RBI single by Mitch Morales.

Garton scattered eleven hits over 6.1 innings to earn the win.

The loss was the fourth straight for the Cajuns, their longest drought of the season.

The two teams will square off Saturday afternoon at 3pm (CDT).  Left hander Chris Griffitt will get the start for the Cajuns.