<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Cajuns open Sun Belt play vs. rival Jags</span>
Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com

The University of Louisiana's baseball team may be 20-4 and already holding a school-record winning streak to start the season.

The Ragin' Cajuns are ranked in the top 20 in two different national polls, and are coming off their biggest offensive output in over a year.

But head coach Tony Robichaux and his players know that early-season success won't mean very much if UL stumbles in Sun Belt Conference play, and the Cajuns open league wars with a stern test tonight.

The UL squad takes on long-time rival South Alabama (14-9) at 6:30 p.m. at Moore Field in the opener of a three-game series, one that matches the teams picked to finish one-two in the coaches' preseason poll.

"This has been in the back of everybody's minds," said Cajun shortstop Micah Cockrell, who had four hits and five RBIs in a 23-3 destruction of Lamar Tuesday night. "We've known for a while that this series was coming up, and hopefully we've worked everything out and gotten ourselves ready."

The Cajuns, who opened the season with 14 straight wins, had lost two of four and four out of nine going into Tuesday's game. But the Cardinals were unwitting victims of a bludgeoning that included 11 extra-base hits in a 19-hit UL attack.

"We'd been playing some bad baseball," Robichaux said, "but hopefully that got us back together again. We were locked in and played all nine innings Wednesday, and that comes at a good time because you can't play ugly against South Alabama."

The Jaguars had a slugfest of their own Tuesday, but were on the wrong end of a 17-10 home decision to Southern Mississippi. Before that, USA had taken its first sweep of the year with three wins over Murray State, and the Jags had won six of seven before the Tuesday loss.

South Alabama tied for last year's regular-season title, and were second behind the Cajuns in the preseason poll.

"We know they're going to be good," said freshman catcher Jonathan Lucroy, who had a home run and a game-breaking three-run double in Tuesday's win. "But this team's going to treat it just like we treated St. John's, Wichita State, everybody else. We're not worried or scared, we're just going to go out and do our job."

The Cajuns, 19th in the Collegiate Baseball magazine poll and 20th in the USA Today Sports Weekly/ESPN poll, enter the weekend with a .327 team batting average and nine regular performers hitting over .300. The Jags are at .288 as a team, and the two clubs combined for 55 runs (29 by UL, 26 by USA) in last year's regular-season-ending series in Mobile where USA took two of three to tie for the league title.

But this time, it will likely be pitching that decides the series, and that's where the two will truly lock horns.

Robichaux has tabbed Friday and Saturday regulars in senior righthander Kevin Ardoin (5-0, 1.03 ERA) and senior southpaw Austin Faught (4-0, 2.37) for tonight's game and Saturday's 2 p.m. contest. It's been determining a Sunday starter that has been the biggest question so far this season.

The Jaguars of head coach Steve Kittrell will counter with veterans of their own, with three lettermen righthanders slated to pitch. Sophomore Chase Christianson (2-2, 1.21) is tentatively set to throw tonight, with sophomore P. J. Walters (4-2, 3.23) and senior Jeramy Simmons (1-1, 3.48) scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.

"We know how big this series is," Robichaux said, "but we were encouraged with Tuesday. You can't do something like that night in and night out, but you can stay locked in as hitters and keep pulling for each other. That's what we've got to continue to do."

Originally published March 25, 2005