SU baseball team splits with Southeastern Louisiana

In their season opener Saturday, February 9 at Lee-Hines Field, the Southern University Jaguar baseball team,was defeated 14-9 by the Lions of Southeastern Louisiana University before defeating them 8-5 Tuesday, February 19 at Alumni Field, in Hammond.
The Jaguars (1-1), who are the reigning Southwestern Athletic Conference champions, fought to improve upon a 12-2 third-inning deficit in Saturday’s game.
“We didn’t give up, fought back and showed a really good effort,” Cador said. “It’s early, and I anticipated we’d have some problems at catcher, because we’d had them in practice…But I just know we’re going to get better.”
Southern, 43-12 last season, lost four key players in last year’s draft, are looking to improve on last year’s record.
“We have a good group of young men out here,” said head coach Roger Cador.
Returning to the position of pitcher was Jason Anderson, who struggled on the mound, giving up six earned runs before leaving the field in the second inning.
“Anderson was not able to get the corners. And in order for him to be effective, he’s got to have corners,” Cador said.
On the offensive side of the ball, All-American Rickie Weeks went 2-for-4, including a triple, with three runs batted in (RBIs), two runs and a walk to lead the Jaguars in their defeat. Antoin Gray went 3-5, with a one-run homerun in the seventh inning.
For SLU, second baseman Chris Rusnak went 3-for-5, with two runs. Matt Rogelstad and Justin Casas had two hits each for the Lions.
SLU got the game started with a run off a passed ball before gaining seven runs off five hits and three walks in the second inning.
Atlanta native Eric Thomas entered the game in the second inning, relieving Anderson on the mound. Thomas walked in one run and allowed a two-run single.
“Eric Thomas just didn’t have location. He threw the ball all over the place,” Cador said. “But those are the kids we’re going to depend on. They’ll get better.”
The Jaguars began to put up a fight with six runs in the sixth and seventh innings.
Kevin Vital had an RBI double and Fernando Puebla hit a two-run single in the sixth inning. In the seventh, Gray smashed a homer, with Weeks scoring on Vital’s sacrifice hit and Theo Dumas adding an RBI single.
Southern’s final score was an RBI groundout by Rickie Weeks in the eighth.
Tuesday evening in Hammond, the Jaguars (1-1), after the three innings of poor base-running including three errors giving the Lions a 5-0 lead, the Jaguars held Southeastern scoreless, while SU garnered eight runs on eight hits.
“This is typical of early-season games,” Coach Cador said about his team’s slow start.
Weeks, Gray and Trae Duncan each had solo homeruns in Southern’s winning effort.
The Jaguars went through five pitchers resulting in Jerome Anderson of LaPlace, who saw two batters in the seventh inning and ,striking out one being credited with the win. Josef Rankin got the save.
SU’s picked up their first scores of the evening early in the fifth inning when Farrand John and Brandon Mason pulled one-out walks.
Southern cut the Southeastern lead to 5-4 in the sixth when pinch-hitter Robert Primus hit a double with two RBIs. Fred Lewis scored on a fielder’s choice.
After SLU freshman Riz St. Germain retired John and struck out Gray to lead off the seventh, Weeks hit hiis first home run of the season to tie the score at 5-5.
Gray, who also had a homerun against Southeastern in Saturday’s game, hit a towering solo home run off SLU pitcher Jeff Stempel in the ninth. Two batters later, Duncan hit a one-run homer down the left-field line.
Lions reliever Brad Pitarro (0-1) came in and gave up a single by Duncan before being replaced by Craig Gonzales. Gonzales then threw a wild pitch, allowing Duncan to advance to second. Duncan scored on Kevin Vital’s single to right.
The Jaguars will be back in action against Ollie Harvey, Friday, February 22 and 23, at Lee-Hines Field. Game times are 5p.m. and 1 p.m. respectively.