There was a lot of feel-good moments to go around for the UL Ragin’ Cajuns in their 9-3 win over Little Rock to close out the regular season Saturday at Russo Park.
The win left the fourth-place Cajuns 33-21 overall and 19-11 in Sun Belt play in the regular season and will open Sun Belt Tournament play against No. 5 South Alabama at 4 p.m. Wednesday in Montgomery, Alabama.
"All of them are important," UL coach Matt Deggs said. "I think we still have a heartbeat. Plans moving forward is to go one game at a time and work to win that tournament. But if we keep stacking up wins, you never know what will happen."
For starters, there was Heath Hood, who delivered his first four-hit game of the season.
"That was a great way to finish it," Hood said. "Perfect way to send off these awesome seniors. We all just want to play as hard as we can for them and make sure we go out right."
Hood began his big day with an RBI single in the first inning to salvage a run for an early 1-0 lead.
"I think just trying to hit my pitch when I get it and not missing it," said Hood, who ended the regular season hitting .341, of his hot finish "Taking advantage of what I get at the plate."
The Trojans responded with a two-run double from Noah Dickerson in the third to take a 2-1 lead off UL senior starter Jeff Wilson.
By the time, Wilson exited the game, however, on senior day, he got a good ovation after giving up just those two runs on four hits, one walks and striking out seven in 4.2 innings. Wilson threw 86 pitches, including 51 for strikes.
That set the stage for Carson Roccaforte to put a smile on his face with an RBI single to chase home Tyler Robertson, who had led off with a double, to knot the game at 2-2.
The hit was Roccaforte’s sixth straight hit over the previous two games and he added a third hit in the seventh and then an RBI double in the eighth.
That meant back-to-back four-hit games for Roccaforte, who finished the regular season hitting to leave him at .392 with 16 homers and 66 RBIs.
That would be the highest batting average since Chris Webb hit .398 in 1996.
That Roccaforte hit in the seventh played a key role in UL scoring two runs in that frame – or the difference in the game.
It was a one-out hit to ignite the inning. Connor Kimple – another senior honored prior to the game – doubled to right to put two Cajuns in scoring position. Kimple was 2-for-4 with an RBI on his senior day.
Hood got one home with an RBI single and C.J. Willis later added an RBI infield single for a 4-2 lead.
Roccaforte’s RBI double in the eighth was UL’s 15th hit in the game for a key insurance run.
That helped make southpaw relief pitcher Austin Perrin walk off the field with a big smile himself. On senior day, Perrin got the win after pitching 2.2 effective innings, only allowing one run on two hits, one walk and striking out two.
"Every time I got out there, I tell (Wilson), 'I've got your back' and that's what it's all about," Perrin said. "We all have each other's back."
Things did get a little testy for Perrin in the top of the eighth, though.
Dickerson walked with one out and Canyon McWilliams doubled.
That allowed him to walk off the mound to a standing ovation, tipping his hat to the crowd.
"I can't describe it," Perrin said of that moment. "I've seen some cool ones before. Probably the next coolest one I've seen is Gunner Leger when he ended his career, but that was awesome. Our fans show up every day whether we're having a winning season or not a winning season, they're always here. It's always good to show them support like they do us."
Perrin shined down the stretch to make himself more of an option in postseason play.
"At the beginning of the season, I was really struggling," Perrin said. "I had to go back to my roots, which is coach Robe, you know, and just work while you wait. Jacob Schultz and coach (Seth) Thib(odeaux) were big factors in that. They worked with me a lot. We figured something out and it clicked. We're just going to keep rolling whatever it is."
Reliever Jake Hammond, though, only allowed one run to help the Cajuns maintain the lead and UL’s offense pulled away in the bottom of the eighth.
But perhaps the biggest feel-good moment in the win was for senior graduate transfer catcher Austin Garrett. He broke Julian Brock’s streak of 47 consecutive starts behind the plate and collected his first hit of the season in 14 at-bats with a knock to right field in the second inning.
It was only Garrett’s third start of the season with his family in the stands for the Kansas State transfer.
"It was awesome to see AG (Garrett) get a start and get a big knock," Perrin said
Willis also had a blast in his 15th start of the season, finishing the day 3-for-4 with a double and three RBIs - contributing to UL's five-run eighth with a two-run double.
"it's very, very, very rare do all your seniors contribute on senior day, senior weekend," Deggs said. "I don't know if I've ever seen it. You go to (Brandon) Talley, great performance (Thursday), Schultz hung in there last night and gave us innings and settled things down, (Wilson) comes out today and really good start ... then AP (Perrin) gets the win and then you've got all the hitters contributing from Garrett to Kimp(le) to J-Bo (Jonathan Brandon).
"I was really, really happy and proud of them."
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