Stop me if you've heard this before.

Pitching..  Defense.  A timely hit.

You may get tired of Tony Robichaux talking about it, but the formula worked again for the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns as they defeated the Little Rock Trojans 1-0 in the first game of their Sun Belt Conference series Friday night at M. L. "Tigue" Moore Field at Russo Park.

"You had two Friday night arms out there," head coach Tony Robichaux said.  "Both guys were stingy and we got the timely hit and they didn't."

The timely hit was provided by catcher Kole McKinnon, who doubled down the left field line in the second inning, scoring Jonathan Windham who reached on a misplayed double one batter earlier.

"He's such a good kid," Robichaux said.  "He got hit on the hand the other night and it's amazing he's back two games later.  But he's a grinder and a gamer and I'm really happy for him."

The hit by McKinnon would be all Colten Schmidt (5-0) would need as he allowed only two hits over eight innings of work.  One of the hits was an infield hit.  Schmidt was only in trouble one time in the game and that was in the sixth when Marcus Ragan led off with a swinging bunt infield single and Danny Mitchell, Jr. was hit by a pitch.  After failing to get a bunt down, Chase Coker's grounder up the middle was turned into a double play by Hayden Cantrelle and Matt Merino grounded out to end the inning.

Nick Lee got the save after a leadoff infield hit by Mitchell.  Coker bunted him to second and Windham fielded a short hop on a grounder by Marino for the second out.  Cantrelle took care of Kale Emshoff's grounder to secure Lee's third save of the season.

Chandler Fidel (5-3) was the hard luck loser, pitching a complete game and allowing just three hits, none after the third inning.  He walked only one and struck out five.

The two teams will play game two of their series tomorrow evening at 6:00.

More From 103.3 The GOAT