Nebraska Baseball: Huskers vs Ragin' Cajuns - It's Geaux Time

by corn blight on May 2, 2008 7:32 AM CDT in Baseball Comment 0 comments

Nebraska takes a break from Big 12 play this weekend to welcome the Louisiana Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns to Lincoln.

Here’s what I said about the Ragin’ Cajuns before the season started:

Five of seven pitchers return, including all three weekend pitchers. Hunter Moody, Buddy Glass, Brent Solich and Danny Farquhar accounted for 26 of 45 wins last season, giving the Ragin' Cajuns one of the best pitching staffs in the nation.…..
The Ragin' Cajuns come to Lincoln the first weekend in May. By that time, Nebraska should have worked out their starting rotation and the Ragin' Cajuns will provide us with a great out of conference measuring stick.

Talk about a tale of two teams not doing what they’re expected. The Ragin’ Cajuns are currently in seventh place in the Sun Belt Conference with a 12-12 record. Their record stands at 22-23 overall and they have a RPI of 114. What appeared to be a nasty tough match up at the beginning of the season doesn’t appear so now.

I'll admit I haven't paid much attention to the Ragin' Cajuns since I wrote my preview. I checked on them once, and I knew they weren’t doing that well. In writing this preview, I thought I’d check into why.

The Ragin’ Cajuns were ranked coming into preseason, but they started their season at 6-12. Their team batting average is fairly low, only .246. They currently have only one guy batting above .300, and that’s at Scott Hawkins at .309. He has 31 RBI and 33 runs and he leads the team in eight of offensive statistic categories.

Danny Farquhar was one of the pitchers I mentioned in the pre-season, and he is 3-7 on the season. Another, Hunter Moody, will face Johnny Dorn on Friday in a match up of the two winningest active pitchers in college baseball. Dorn has 36 career wins, Moody 29.

The Ragin’ Cajuns are 9-10 at home, 11-12 away. Nebraska is 24-2-1 at home. Doesn’t bode well for them, does it?

Projected Starting Pitchers

	Nebraska	La-Lafayette
Friday	RH Johnny Dorn (5-1, 2.60 ERA)	LH Hunter Moody (7-2, 3.21 ERA)
Saturday - G1	RH Thad Weber (8-2, 3.75 ERA)	RH Michael Cook (5-3, 4.66 ERA)
Saturday - G2	RH Aaron Pribanic (3-3, 4.29 ERA)	LH Brent Solich (1-3, 7.05 ERA)

With how many wins will Johnny finish his Husker career?

Barring weather issues, one of the two head coaches will reach a milestone this weekend.

Louisiana head coach Tony Robichaux needs two wins to become the 33rd active NCAA Division I head baseball coach to win 750 career games. Here’s to hoping he gets #750 somewhere else.
Nebraska Coach Mike Anderson enters the weekend series needing two wins to reach 250 career wins. Here’s hoping he gets them.

If any of you folks are coming into Lincoln from Lafayette, you might stop by Buzzard Billy's in the Haymarket Area. The red beans n rice I had there was excellent. Tell Chris the bartender the loud guy from Corn Nation sent you, and have the Lincoln-brewed porter. It's very good as well.

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