University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Tara Hamilton's Seventh-Inning Homer Lifts Cajuns Past Ole Miss in 2005 Season Opener
2/4/2005 12:00:00 AM | Softball
LAFAYETTE – Tara Hamilton's first career home run provided the ninth-ranked Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns softball team with the runs it needed to post a 3-0 season-opening victory over Ole Miss here in game 5 of the 2nd Annual Louisiana's Mardi Gras Classic.
Hamilton's looping fly ball that crossed over the left center field fence ended a pitcher's duel between Louisiana-Lafayette's Brooke Mitchell and Ole Miss starter Dana Brill which saw both team scoreless going into the seventh inning.
Joy Webre led off the Cajuns' half of the seventh inning with a single into shallow center field. Webre's leadoff hit was immediately followed by a double from Brittany Bryant deep into the left field corner that gave the Cajuns two baserunners after netting only four through the first six innings.
Hamilton, a sophomore transfer from Wisconsin, stepped up with the key hit the Ragin' Cajuns needed to fight off the pesky Rebels. The home run was the first of her career – both at UL Lafayette and Wisconsin – and carried the Cajuns to a season-opening victory for the fourth straight season.
Mitchell, a 2004 NFCA First Team All-American with 524 strikeouts in 2004, was in a groove as she fanned 14 Ole Miss batters and surrendered just three hits in seven innings of work. The strikeout total moved her to 981 for her career – 19 strikeouts away from the magical 1,000th strikeout of her magnificent career.
Brittany Bryant and Lacey Bertucci each had a team-high two base hits for the Cajuns.
Hamilton's blast made up for a series of misses over the previous six innings for Louisiana-Lafayette which hit into four double plays for the game.
Ole Miss never posed a threat to Mitchell and the Cajuns. The first eight outs recorded, aside from DeDe Justice leaving early at first base in the first inning, by Louisiana-Lafayette were via Mitchell strikeouts.
The Rebels only threat came in the second inning. Ole Miss loaded the bases as Mandy Ott was hit by a pitch and then Mitchell issued back-to-back two-out walks to Chloe Kloezeman and Jordan Chitwood advancing Ott to third base – the only time the Rebels crossed second base the entire contest. Mitchell ended the scoring opportunity when she struck out pinch hitter Lynette Karp to end the inning.
Louisiana-Lafayette improved to 22-3 all-time in season openers and 4-1 under co-head coaches Stefni and Michael Lotief.
The Ragin' Cajuns moved to 1-0 in the Mardi Gras Classic and made the quick turnaround to face in-state rival Northwestern State at 10:05 p.m. in Friday's finale.
Ole Miss fell to 1-1 with the loss and is finished with play on Friday. The Rebels return to action in Saturday's opener against Prairie View at 9 a.m.
Louisiana-Lafayette 3,
Ole Miss 0 (Feb 04, 2005 at Lafayette, La.)
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Louisiana-Lafayette. 000 000 3 - 3 7 0 (1-0)
Ole Miss............ 000 000 0 - 0 3 0 (1-1)
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Pitchers: Louisiana-Lafayette - Mitchell. Ole Miss - Brill.
Win-Mitchell(1-0) Loss-Brill(0-1) T-2:29 A-0
HR UL - Hamilton.
-- Ragin' Cajuns --
