University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
Florida International
Mitchell Strikes Out Career-High 16, Cajuns Advance to SBC Tournament Finals
5/9/2004 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Friday, May 9, 2003
BOWLING
GREEN, Ky. – Round five went to the Ragin' Cajuns.
After splitting a four-game series in the regular season, the 21st-ranked Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns softball team took the all-important fifth meeting of the season with Florida International by handing the Golden Panthers a 6-0 defeat here Friday afternoon at the WKU Softball Field in the semifinals of the 2003 Sun Belt Conference Softball Tournament in a battle between the league's top two teams.
Sophomore ace pitcher and 2003 Sun Belt Conference Pitcher of the Year Brooke Mitchell (21-6, 0.89 ERA) fanned a career-high 16 batters and tossed her fifth complete-game one-hitter of the season while the offense tacked on six runs and 10 hits as the Ragin' Cajuns (42-8) remained undefeated all-time in SBC Tournament play at 12-0 and advanced to the championship game to be played Saturday at 1:30 p.m (CDT).
UL Lafayette will be making its fourth straight appearance in the SBC Tournament championship game and will have to be beat twice to be dethroned. One win will give the Cajuns their fourth straight tournament title.
Friday's win also avenged a two-game sweep at the hands of the Golden Panthers on Easter Sunday and sent FIU (36-24) packing into the loser's bracket and an elimination game Friday evening against the winner of Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee.
Mitchell's 16 strikeouts bested her previous career best of 15 established on March 4, 2002 against Long Island and tied on Feb. 19, 2003 at Nicholls State. Friday's performance was her eighth double-digit strikeout outing of the season and the shutout was her eighth solo shutout.
The Pasadena, Texas, native struck out 16 of the 25 batters she faced and walked just one.
Mitchell had a no-hitter going into the fourth inning before Jennifer Owens broke up the no-hit bid with a blooper into center field with two outs in the inning.
Mitchell's strikeout total increased her season total to 235 which currently ranks fifth on the all-time single-season charts and is 21 away from the single-season record of 256 set by Cheryl Longeway in 1995.
UL Lafayette began the scoring with one run in the second inning. Senior first baseman Summar Lapeyrouse lifted a first-pitch, two-out, RBI double over the head of FIU center fielder Nicole Dubovik allowing freshman Lauren Castle to make it home from first base with the Cajuns first run of the day and a 1-0 lead.
The Cajuns had a chance to further extend the lead when Crystal George hit a grounder up the middle of the infield, but Lapeyrouse was thrown out at home by Dubovik to end the rally.
Louisiana-Lafayette added one more run in the third inning on a Brittany Bryant infield single that scored All-American third baseman Becky McMurtry from second base.
Bryant bounced a grounder to a diving FIU shortstop Stephanie Wolter who couldn't recover in time for the force at second and held onto the ball immediately thereafter allowing McMurtry to motor around third for a 2-0 lead.
FIU's best scoring chance came in the fifth inning when the Golden Panthers loaded the bases on a leadoff walk and back-to-back errors by Bryant and Mitchell.
Mitchell would fan the next two batters after the second error of the inning, getting pinch hitter Jennifer Powell and Wolter to strikeout to end any hopes of a rally.
Cajuns catcher Joy Webre tacked on one more run with a solo home run to left center field to lead off the bottom of the fifth. It was Webre's 10th home run of the season, team's 71st and the first hit in the tournament.
Louisiana-Lafayette put the game away with a three-spot in the bottom of the sixth.
McMurtry led off the inning with a walk which was followed by a Danyele Gomez bloop single into shallow right field.
FIU's misery began on the very next batter when Joy Webre hit a dribbler to starting pitcher Kendra Laminack that she threw over first baseman Cindy Turek's head and into right-field foul territory allowing McMurtry to score her second run of the day and make it 4-0 UL Lafayette. Webre advanced to second on the error and Gomez wound up on third.
Gomez then scored on a passed ball and Webre later crossed the plate on a Brittany Bryant sacrifice fly into right field to increase the Cajuns margin to 6-0.
Mitchell sealed the deal by striking out the side, the second time in the game, in the seventh inning.
Mitchell improved to 21-6 on the season with the victory and avenged a 2-0 loss to the Golden Panthers on Easter Sunday.
Lamincak suffered the loss for FIU and dropped to 11-11 on the season. She tossed 4 2/3 innings allowing six hits and two earned runs while walking six and striking out eight. Freshman Nicole Barrett relieved Laminack in the in the third inning and went 1 1/3 innings allowing four hits and one earned run.
Bryant led all Cajuns with two RBI and Lapeyrouse led the way with two hits (2-for-3). Both McMurtry and Webre each scored two runs. McMurtry increased her season-run leading total to 55.
With the win UL Lafayette improves to 14-3 all-time against FIU all-time and 3-0 in SBC Tournament action.
The shutout was the Cajuns 24th of the season through 50 games.
The Cajuns will now go for their fourth straight SBC Tournament title Saturday at 1:30 p.m. against an opponent still to be determined. UL Lafayette will know its foe following Friday night's 6:30 p.m. elimination game.
-- Ragin' Cajuns --
