June 4, 2010
Box | Notes | Quotes
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Zach Osborne threw a five-hitter while Louisiana shut down Rice in a 1-0 victory Friday in the opening game of the Austin Regional.
Osborne (9-4) gave up five hits, walked two and struck out four for the Cajuns (38-20). In the sixth, he hit Diego Seastrunk to load the bases with two outs, but was able to get out of the jam with his third strikeout of the game.
Osborne again found himself in a jam the next inning. After two quick outs to start the inning, he gave up back-to-back singles to Steven Sultzbaugh and Chad Mozingo before forcing Jimmy Comerota into one of eight groundouts by the Owls (38-22).
Jordan Poirrier scored the Ragin' Cajuns' only run in the eighth on Chad Keefer's two-out single.
POSTGAME NOTES
Tournament Notes
• With the win Louisiana advances to take on the Texas/Rider winner on Saturday at 6:30 p.m.
• Rice moves to the loser's bracket and will take on the Texas/Rider loser on Saturday at 1p.m.
• Today's game marked the 20th time that Louisiana and Rice have met on the diamond. Louisiana's victory narrowed the Rice lead in the all-time series to 15-5.
• Louisana is making its 12th NCAA postseason appearance and its first since 2007.
• Rice is making its 16th NCAA postseason appearance, improving its streak to 16-straight appearances.
• The official attendance for the regional's first game was 6,455.
Louisiana (38-20)
Team Notes
• With its win, Louisiana is now 20-23 in NCAA Regional action. The win marked Louisiana's first NCAA win since 2007.
• The crowd of 6,455 for the Louisiana/Rice game was the second-largest crowd the Cajuns have played in front of this season.
• The Ragin' Cajuns' shutout marked the 19th time this season they have held an opponent to two runs or fewer.
Individual Notes • Starting pitcher Zach Osborne's complete-game shutout marked his 16th-straight start with at least 6.0 innings pitched. The complete-game shutout was his first of the season and the second of his career. It also marked the second shutout for Louisiana in NCAA postseason history and the first since Andy Gros pitched a shutout against LSU on June 1, 2002.
• Osborne's complete-game was his fifth of 2010, marking the first-time a UL pitcher has thrown five complete games since 2006.
• Designated hitter Jordan Poirrier's single in the first inning extended his hitting streak to eight games, equaling his season-best streak.
• Poirrier's two-single performance against the Owls was his 20th multi-hit effort of the season.
• Rightfielder Matt Goulas' single in the second improved his hitting streak to six games.
• Catcher Chad Keefer's game-winning RBI single in the eighth extended his current hitting streak to nine games.
• Second baseman Kyle Bostick's two-hit outing was his third multi-hit game of the season and his third in his last seven games.
Rice (38-22)
Team Notes
• The Owls loss moved Rice to 70-37 all-time in NCAA postseason action.
• The crowd of 6,455 at the NCAA Regional was the fifth-largest crowd that Rice has played in front of in 2010.
Individual Notes
• Third baseman Anthony Rendon's single in the fourth extended his hitting streak to a season-best 13 games.
• Centerfielder Steven Sultzbaugh's two-hit performance against the Ragin' Cajuns was his 16th multi-hit game of the season.
POSTGAME QUOTES
LOUISIANA
Head coach Tony Robichaux
Opening statement: Today was kind of the epitome of the kind of club we are. We want to have good pitching, and we want to play good defense, and we want to try and have timely hitting. Today was the epitome of that. Zach (Osborne) gave us good pitching, he had good defense behind him, and (Chad) Keefer got the timely hit. Zach has done this all year. He does not let the game get away from him. He manages the game almost like a manager throughout the ball game, so it is like having another coach out there on the mound. You have to give the Rice pitcher credit. He did a great job, too. We just got a timely hit, and that was enough to win.
On RHP Zach Osborne's performance today: We have not thrown a shutout since June of 2002. It would not be remarkable for him to throw a shutout, but to come in here and just believe that we are going to do that against a good hitting Rice team, it's just what he does. He keeps the ball down, changes speeds. He has excellent life and movement on his fastball, so it is so hard to square him up. Even though he gets tired, he still has run and movement.
RHP Zach Osborne
On how he felt today: My arm felt great. The only thing that started getting tired were my legs. In between innings, going and sitting down and then trying to get back up and get my legs back under me was the only thing that was really bothering me.
On pitching in a game like this one: Whenever I run a game like that, I just really want to be out there. It is my game, so I just want to stay out there as long as I can.
On the pitching duel with Rice RHP Jared Rogers: He was a great pitcher, and he was giving us a lot of trouble. It makes me really have to be on my game, too, because I cannot afford to give up and run because it is a huge run if one does score. Our run won the ball game. In those kinds of games, you just have to keep them off the bases and get your hitters back in the dugout.
On whether this was the best game he has ever pitched: It was definitely the biggest game of my life. Earlier this year, I threw a one-game shutout, but that does not compare to this.
C Chad Keefer
On RHP Zach Osborne's performance: Coach asked me how his velocity was doing, and he did not drop off at all. If anything, I am guessing Zach picked it up a little bit in later innings. A couple times we went out to the mound just to give him a little breather.
On people talking about seeing Texas and Rice in the final game: Don't leave us out. We got here, so we are here to play, just like they are.
RICE
Head coach Wayne Graham
Opening statement: Some days you don't hit and you also have to give their pitcher credit. He has a good sinking fastball and we have had trouble with that before. We've had trouble with Copeland of Southern Miss, he's the same type of pitcher. I had hopes that we would adjust better than we did today and there were two or three balls that we hit real well, but overall, we just didn't do a very good job with the bat.
On the hitting adjustments: I thought some people didn't have good swings, and if you can't put a good swing on the ball you shouldn't be swinging at it. In some situations, I think we were just lacking in pure bat speed. You can't get the ball out of the infield without bat speed. We kept trying to hit Zach Osborne's best pitch and we missed out on some pitches that were over the plate.
On the benefits of facing a pitcher like Osborne before today: What you see on the field is not always what you see on the film. We actually have film on Osborne from last year. Sometimes guys have trouble adjusting their swings to a good moving fastball.
RHP Jared Rogers
On his improvement throughout the season: I got stronger as the year went along. The control on all of my pitches got better and my secondary pitches improved a lot as well.
On the pressure of a pitcher's duel: I didn't think there was very much pressure, I thought it was fun. I've never pitched in a game like that before. When guys are throwing up goose eggs every inning I take it as a challenge.
