Colten Schmidt Dazzles as Cajuns Down Mavericks to Open Weekend

The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns out-duel the UT-Arlington Mavericks 2-0 at home on Friday night to open their three-game Sun Belt Conference Series.

It was certainly a pitchers duel on this night out at The Tigue as both southpaws, Colten Schmidt and Brad Vassar did battle.

Vassar was good, lasting 6.1 innings, giving up only three hits, one run, walked two, and struck out four.

Colten Schmidt was simply better. Coming off a week where he was named the Sun Belt Conference Pitcher of the Week he looked as though he was bidding for back to back honors. Schmidt set a career high in strike-outs with 10 this evening through 8 innings pitched, allowed three hits, walked only one, didn't allow a run, and had to work around two doubles.

The only offense of the game for the Cajuns came in the fifth and eighth innings. In the fifth, Zach LaFleur was able to get the Cajuns rolling with a lead-off walk. From there he was sacrificed to second by Tyler Stover, McKinnon grounded out to second to push him to third, and then Jonathan Windham knocked him in with an infield single.

In the eighth, it was another lead-off walk and this time it was Windham who drew it. He was followed by a Daniel Lahare infield single, Cantrelle flied out to center-field which moved Windham to third, and when Bourgeois hit a come-backer Windham was caught between third and home for the out. After Kasuls was intentionally walked it was the DH, Kennon Fontenot who stung a ball that ate up the SS Josh Minjarez and that allowed Daniel Lahare to score the second run of the game.

A two-run cushion was all that closer Logan Stoelke would need as he preceded to work around two singles that put runners on the corners for the Mavericks in the ninth. With two outs he induced a bouncing ball to short that Hayden Cantrelle played on the back-hand like a veteran, gunning out David Renning to end the game.

With the win the Cajuns improve to 14-16 on the season, 4-6 in the Sun Belt Conference.

For the Mavericks, the loss pushes their record to .500 at 14-14 and drops them to 6-4 in the conference.

The Cajuns and Mavericks will take the field on Saturday for another 6 p.m. start.

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