University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Cajuns Return To Action Monday at La.Tech
3/23/2003 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Sunday, March 23, 2003
RUSTON – Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns softball team will see its first action in the last 10 days when it takes the field here Monday afternoon against Louisiana Tech at the Lady Techsters Softball complex.
The
games were added to the Cajuns (15-5) schedule last
Friday in an effort to break up a layoff which would
have reached 13 games as the Cajuns were not scheduled
to play until Thursday against Alabama at Lady Cajun
Park.
Now the twinbill will serve as a tuneup for the Cajuns much anticipated battle with the 18th-ranked Crimson Tide led by former Cajuns assistant Pat Murphy.
UL Lafayette's last game was played on Friday, March 14 in bracket play against then-No. 6 Oklahoma in the 2003 KIA Klassic in Fullerton, Calif.
The Cajuns dropped their third outing in the last four games with a 1-0 heartbreaking loss to the Sooners.
OU won the game on a sac fly in the bottom of the sixth. Brooke Mitchell tossed a one-hitter and carried the no-hit bid into the sixth inning. It was the Cajuns second one-run loss at the tournament.
Louisiana Tech (7-23) enters Monday's affair on a three-game losing streak. The Techsters had split six games prior to the current three-game slide which included a 2-1,3-1 sweep at the hands of Sam Houston State last Friday in Ruston.
The Ragin' Cajuns are 2-0 on the opponents home field this season and 5-4 overall away from Lafayette. La. Tech is 2-5 at home this season.
The two teams met earlier this season in Lafayette in the Cajuns season opener. The Cajuns swept La. Tech 8-0 (5 innings), 4-0 to take a 31-30 advantage in the all-time series. The sweep continued Tech's season-high nine-game losing streak.
In that first meeting UL Lafayette sophomore ace Brooke Mitchell (6-4, 1.18 ERA, 65.1 IP, 92 K, 23 BB) tossed the first perfect game of her brilliant career. Mitchell struck out five and walked none in five innings.
It was also a memorable day for two Cajuns freshmen. Both Danyele Gomez (.361, 8 HR, 23 RBI) and Brittany Bryant (.277, 4 HR, 12 RBI) launched home runs in their first two collegiate at bats.
Gomez hit a grand slam in the bottom of the first inning of game one and then followed it up with a solo shot in the third inning. Bryant, a defensive sub in the top of the fifth for Tiffany Hebert, clubbed her first home run in her first at bat with a two-run job in the bottom of the fifth to put the Cajuns on top 8-0 and end the game by the five-inning, eight-run mercy rule.
The Cajuns would take the second game 4-0 with a three-spot in the third inning followed by a Bryant home run in the fifth inning.
The Cajuns are led by senior All-American Becky McMurtry who is hitting a team-high .368 and also sports a team-best 14 extra-base hits. The North Platte, Neb., native hit a two-run home run in the fifth inning of the Cajuns 3-0 win over then-No. 16 Florida State at the KIA Klassic. McMurtry has scored 22 runs and has scored at least one in all but five games.
Gomez leads the Cajuns in home runs with eight and RBI with 23. The Metairie native has struggled as of late, though, going 1-for-13 since the first game of the Boston University doubleheader two weeks ago.
In the circle, the Cajuns are led by Mitchell and senior Michael Parrott (5-0, 0.63 ERA, 33.1 IP, 3 ER). Parrott tossed a complete-game, five-hit shutout of the Techsters in the season opener. She earned the win in the Cajuns 3-0 triumph over FSU at the KIA Klassic.
LTU, led by former ULM pitcher Sara Dawson in her first season, is paced on offense by the bat of Brittany Stanley. Stanley is the Techsters top hitter with a .282 average and 29 total hits through 30 games.
Alison White is Tech's top run producer with 11 RBI and is followed closely by Casey Reiff's 10 RBI. White leads the Techsters with two home runs.
As a team, La. Tech has struggled at the plate. The Lady Techsters are hitting a paltry .210 as a team and have struck out 138 times while walking only 56 times. La. Tech has been outscored 131-63 by the opposition.
Marla Pinkston and Kristen Rupp are the Techsters regulars in the pitching circle.
Pinkston, the team's leader with a 2.97 ERA and 85 strikeouts, did not make the trip to Lafayette earlier this season. She has logged 100 innings so far this season.
Rupp fared well against the Cajuns lineup on Feb. 11, allowing just four runs and six hits in the second game.
Opponents are hitting .273 against the Techsters and errors have cost La. Tech this season (55 in 30 games).
UL Lafayette leads the all-time series 31-30 and has won the last 10 meetings with Tech. The Cajuns are 22-5 versus La. Tech since 1993 and have outscored the Techsters 49-1 in the last seven meetings and have posted three straight shutouts.
This is the Cajuns first trip to Ruston since the Lady Techsters left the Sun Belt Conference in 2002. The Cajuns last played in Ruston on April 13-14, 2001. UL Lafayette swept the four-game SBC series by the count of 20-1.
Louisiana-Lafayette is 6-0 against Louisiana Tech under head coach Stefni Lotief.
Following Monday's games, the Ragin' Cajuns will return to Lafayette to open a 16-game homestand – one which will close out the 2003 home portion of the schedule and run through April 17.
SEC-member Alabama provides the opposition in a 7 p.m. single-game Thursday, March 27 at 7 p.m. at Lady Cajun Park. The game will be the first of six games to be carried live on SportsRadio ESPN 1420-KPEL AM in the Lafayette area and over the Internet at www.weareradio.com. Coverage begins at 6:45 p.m. as Jay Walker and Steve Peloquin bring you all of the action live from Lady Cajun Park.
-- Ragin' Cajuns --
