University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
Middle Tennessee
Cajuns Dominate Blue Raiders, Record 400th Win All-Time at Lady Cajun Park
4/5/2004 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Saturday, April 5, 2003
LAFAYETTE – The 25th-ranked Louisiana's Ragin'
Cajuns softball team opened defense of its back-to-back
Sun Belt Conference regular season championships with a
12-4 (6 innings), 5-0 sweep of Middle Tennessee's Blue
Raiders here Saturday afternoon at Lady Cajun Park on
the opening day of the Sun Belt softball season.
No.
25 UL Lafayette (22-5, 2-0 Sun Belt) exploded for seven
runs in the opening frame of the first game and then
rode the arm of sophomore ace pitcher Brooke Mitchell to
the shutout win in the nightcap. Mitchell picked up both
wins for the Cajuns in the circle as the Cajuns extended
their overall winning streak to seven games, tying a
season-high, and extended their home win streak to 14
straight.
The Cajuns 12-4 win in game one was the 400th
win all-time at Lady Cajun Park since the facility
opened in 1985. Louisiana-Lafayette is 401-69 (.853) in
its beloved confines and 65-8 under coach Stefni Lotief.
Since the 1999 season, the Cajuns have won 117 of the
last 129 games played at the park.
With the sweep, the Cajuns swept their 10th
straight doubleheader dating back to last season's split
with UL Monroe on April 24. The Cajuns have swept 16 of
their last 17 doubleheaders overall and have now swept
eight straight Sun Belt twinbills.
UL Lafayette has now won 16 straight Sun Belt games
dating back to last season while the Blue Raiders
(17-12, 0-2 Sun Belt) saw their five-game SBC win streak
halted.
Louisiana-Lafayette now leads the all-time series 14-0
and improves to 36-2 all-time in Sun Belt play (17-1 at
Lady
Cajun
Park).
The two teams will conclude the four-game set Sunday in
an 11 a.m. twinbill. The start time has been moved from
the original starting time on Noon because of a chance
of rain in the late afternoon.
In game one the Cajuns ran away with the win thanks in
part to a seven run first inning. UL Lafayette scored
the runs on just two hits as the Blue Raiders hit four
batters and walked two in the inning. The Raiders used
two pitchers in the inning but could not avoid the
damage.
MT had taken the lead in the top of the first on a
sacrifice fly by Dani DeCamino. DeCamino's sacrifice
scored Kristina Hieb who was hit by a pitch from Cajuns
starter Brooke Mitchell. She was moved over to third
base on a double over the head of Cajuns center fielder
Gomez by Cortney Mitchell.
Starting pitcher Valerie Swanson, who was charged with
the loss, opened the Cajuns half of the first inning by
hitting Jill Robertson and Becky McMurtry. MT head coach
Cindy Connelley pulled Swanson in favor of Tiffany
Childress after Swanson was having trouble finding the
strike zone.
Danyele Gomez greeted Childress with a double to left
center that brought home the Cajuns first run of the
game, scoring Robertson to tie the game at 1-1.
After Gomez's double, Childress' woes continued. After
getting Joy Webre to ground out she issued back-to-back
walks to Brittany Bryant and Lauren Castle which loaded
the bases and scored one more run on Castle's walk to
make it 2-1. After issuing the walk to Castle, Swanson
was re-entered into the game for Childress.
Swanson would then hit designated player Leslie Pierce
to force in another run and give the Cajuns a 3-1 lead.
Childress was greeted by a Summar Lapeyrouse grounder to
short, but the throw to home plate was not in time as
Bryant scored the Cajuns fourth run of the inning.
Swanson appeared to be out of trouble when she got a
grounder from Crystal George which forced Castle at home
plate. However, a fielding error on an infield pop up by
Robertson allowed Lapeyrouse and Pierce to score and
make it 6-1 Cajuns and the inning was still alive.
UL Lafayette scored one more on a RBI infield single
from Gomez. Swanson finally retired the side when she
induced a grounder to shortstop by Webre. In the first
inning, the Cajuns sent 13 batters to the plate.
UL Lafayette added another run in the third inning.
Robertson led off the inning with a double to left
center and was brought home on an RBI single from Gomez
to make it 8-1.
MT struck back in the fifth inning with a two-run home run off of Cajuns reliever Michael Parrott. Parrott, who took over for Mitchell in the fourth inning ran into trouble in the fifth.
Cortney Mitchell collected her second hit of the day for the Raiders when she deposited a homer into the left field bleachers to trim the lead to 8-3.
Louisiana-Lafayette responded with a run of its own in the bottom half of the fifth. Gomez led off the inning with her fourth hit of the game and second double of the game. Gomez advanced to third on a single to right field by Tiffany Hebert and then scored on a Castle grounder to second base to make it 9-3.
MT loaded the bases in the sixth inning and score once more on a infield single RBI by Kip Phillips.
UL Lafayette ended the game early with three runs in the bottom of the sixth.
The
Cajuns got back-to-back singles from Summar Lapeyrouse
and Crystal George to lead off the inning. That was
followed by a Robertson walk to load the bases. After MT
changed pitchers, McMurtry would single up the middle to
score Lapeyrouse and George and increase the lead to
11-4.
Gomez ended the game with a grounder to shortstop that allowed Robertson to score the game-ending run.
Gomez ended the game 4-for-5 with two doubles and four RBI. Robertson scored three runs. McMurtry was 1-for-3 with two RBI while Castle was 2-for-3 with two RBI.
Brooke Mitchell earned the win going three innings and fanning four while surrendering just one hit. Swanson absorbed the loss for the Blue Raiders falling to 1-2 on the season. Swanson went 4 2/3 allowing eight runs (seven earned).
In game two, the Cajuns struck for two runs in the first inning and that was really all that they would need as Brooke Mitchell remained untouchable. Mitchell surrendered just one hit – a bloop single to shallow left field that Crystal George was unable to get to in time.
Jill Robertson, who ended the second game with two home runs,
led off the Cajuns half of the first with a solo shot to
that banged off of the left field foul pole for a quick
1-0 lead. It was Robertson's sixth home run of the
season and her first since a three-run home run in game
two against Southern Mississippi on March 9.
UL Lafayette added one more run in the inning when Bryant and McMurtry pulled off a double-steal to make it 2-0.
UL Lafayette moved the lead to 3-0 in the third inning when Joy Webre picked up the first of two sacrifice flies in the game, scoring Robertson who led off the inning with an infield single.
Louisiana-Lafayette's final two runs of the game came in the fifth inning. Robertson drove a liner over the left center field wall for her second home run of the game to make it 4-0. It was Robertson's seventh home run of the season and her third hit of the evening.
Webre's
second sacrifice fly of the evening ended the scoring
and made it 5-0 Louisiana-Lafayette.
Afton Thoms pitched the seventh for the Cajuns allowing just an infield single and getting out of trouble when McMurtry picked up a grounder her way, stepped on third base and fired over to Lapeyrouse for the 5-3 double play.
Mitchell picked up her second win of the twinbill and improved to 10-4 on the season. It was her fourth straight win and the fifth straight appearance in which she surrendered just one hit. Mitchell improves to 10-0 all-time in Sun Belt play.
Robertson was 3-for-3 with two homers, two RBI and three runs scored. The Acadiana HS product ended the day with six runs scored. McMurtry was 2-for-2 with two runs scored.
Stayc Preator suffered the loss for MT and fell to 10-5 overall. Preator gave up five runs, all of which were earned, and struck out eight while allowing six hits.
In other Sun Belt action Saturday, Florida International (24-19, 2-0 Sun Belt) swept a doubleheader from New Mexico State (7-38, 0-2 Sun Belt) by scores of 13-2 and 2-1.
-- Ragin' Cajuns --
