University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Cajuns Battle Indians In Twinbill Wednesday Afternoon
2/24/2004 12:00:00 AM | Softball
The
Cajuns, winners of last weekend's Mardi Gras Classic
held at the park, enter the twinbill riding a
season-high, 11-game winning streak and are a perfect
8-0 at home this season.
UL Lafayette has won the last 31 games contested on its home field.
Wednesday's games will be the final opportunity to see the Cajuns at home until Tuesday, March 16 when UL Lafayette hosts Texas State-San Marcos. The Cajuns will play their next 11 games on the road following Wednesday's battle with the Indians (2-8).
Wednesday's games will be the second and third meetings between the two storied rivals this season.
Earlier in the season at the ULM Mardi Gras Classic, the Cajuns posted a 10-0, run-rule rout behind the arm of pitcher Brooke Mitchell who tossed a complete-game, one-hit shutout.
The Cajuns offense backed up Mitchell with 10 runs off of 10 hits including three home runs.
Danyele Gomez blasted a towering grand slam over the right center field wall in the top of the sixth inning as UL Lafayette broke open a four-run game. Gomez was 2-for-3 at the plate with five RBI.
Brittany Bryant went 3-for-4 with three RBI. The Beaumont, Texas, native hit two doubles and a two-run home run - a shot which put the finishing touches on the Cajuns rout of their in-state rival.
Mitchell matched her season-high for strikeouts and was within one out of a no-hitter, but ULM's Heather Hanson laid down a bunt that dug into the ground and spun long enough for her to beat out the throw.
Since that Feb. 7 meeting in Monroe, the Cajuns have continued their winning ways while ULM continued its current downward spiral.
UL Lafayette has won 10 straight games (currently on an 11-game streak that started with the ULM win) while the Indians have dropped five straight beginning with the loss to the Cajuns.
Louisiana-Lafayette swept through its own Mardi Gras Classic last weekend claiming wins over Prairie View (9-0), Texas Tech (7-1), Southeastern Louisiana (3-2), Missouri (1-0) and Stephen F. Austin (3-1).
Mitchell has kept gaining momentum since the first meeting and tossed two no-hitters last week. The Pasadena, Texas, native hurled a no-no of Nicholls State last Wednesday and turned the trick again against Big 12-member Missouri Saturday.
She enters the ULM twinbill with a miniscule 0.39 ERA through 71 1/3 innings of work and has 134 strikeouts to her credit.
Against SFA on Sunday, she moved into third place on the school's all-time career strikeouts list with her 577th career strikeout on the game's final out.
Mitchell is just 23 victims away from reaching 600 strikeouts in her brilliant career and is 35 shy of tying Kim Eisnaugle (1983-86) for second place with 612 strikeouts.
The Cajuns offense will look to get its rhythm back after a sub-par performance in the Mardi Gras Classic. UL Lafayette hit a paltry .165 (21-for-127) over the weekend and struck out 47 times.
True freshman Holly Tankersley is currently the top hitter on the squad with a .361 batting average. The Kirbyville, Texas, native is tied with Danyele Gomez for the team lead with five home runs and sports a team-best .889 slugging percentage.
As a team, UL Lafayette has hit 25 home runs with 10 different players combing for the tally.
The Cajuns pitching staff will look to keep an incredible streak going as well. Entering Wednesday's game, UL Lafayette pitchers have not surrendered an earned run in six straight outings – a span of 44 consecutive innings.
It's been a tough going so far for Louisiana-Monroe. The Indians have a staff ERA of 5.22 and are hitting .236 with only one player batting above .300.
Nicole Berthurum leads the Indians with a .444 batting average, 12 hits and three doubles.
Through 10 games, ULM has failed to hit a home run, but is still implementing its trademark small-ball offense with eight sacrifice hits.
Berthurum has logged the majority of the innings in the circle as well, going 27 2/3. Danille Lahr is second with 19.0 innings but has a lofty 7.00 ERA.
Following Wednesday's doubleheader, Louisiana-Lafayette travel to Lake Charles this weekend to compete in the McNeese State Cowgirl Classic softball tournament Friday-Sunday, Feb. 27-29. There the Cajuns will face host-McNeese State, Nevada and Texas Southern in round-robin format playing each team twice.
-- Ragin' Cajuns --
