University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Arizona Takes Advantage of Cajuns Errors in Series Finale
3/27/2005 12:00:00 AM | Softball
LAFAYETTE – The 11th-ranked Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns softball team touched No. 2 Arizona's ace Alicia Hollowell for three earned runs off of four hits and had the Wildcats on the ropes in the fifth inning here in an Easter Sunday afternoon meeting at Ragin' Cajuns Softball Park.
Danyele Gomez rode a Hollowell offering over the center field wall for a three-run home run that trimmed UA's lead to 5-3. The Cajuns then proceeded to put two more runners on base with just one out and Hollowell struggling with her control. However, the Suisun, Calif., native locked down to strikeout the final two batters and escape a wild inning which featured UA head coach Mike Candrea being ejected from the game.
Two of the Cajuns' season-high six errors came in a five-run sixth inning for the visiting Wildcats as they put to rest any hopes of a Cajuns comeback in a 10-3 series clinching victory.
No. 11 Louisiana-Lafayette (22-7) dropped its fourth straight game since a 1-0 win over Syracuse on Thursday, March 17. The losses have come against top-notch competition, though – No. 21 Arizona State, Long Beach State and No. 2 Arizona twice.
No. 2 Arizona (26-2) completed the weekend sweep with Sunday's victory adding to a 2-0 triumph on Friday in the series opener.
Unlike Friday's outing in which the Cajuns did not get a baserunner until two outs in the seventh inning, Louisiana-Lafayette started knocking on the door in the third inning. The Cajuns would get two baserunners each in the third and fourth innings only two have them stranded by timely strikeouts from Hollowell.
Arizona had a 2-0 lead after plating two on four hits in the second inning. The Wildcats scored three more in the fifth inning when Brooke Mitchell was not able to hit her target.
Mitchell hit Coburn to lead off the fifth inning. Coburn's pinch runner, Adrienne Acton, was forced out at second base on a fielder's choice sacrifice bunt from Callista Balko. Mitchell then issued a walk to Jennifer Martinez and Shelley Schultz chopped a infield single deep in the hole at shortstop to load the bases.
The Cats got two more runs when Mitchell issued back-to-back walks to Crystal Farley and Allyson Von Liechtenstein to scored Balko and Martinez for a 4-0 lead.
After a force play at home got the second out of the inning, Tara Hamilton misplayed a chopper that glanced off of her glove and allowed Farley to score.
Louisiana-Lafayette worked its way back into the game in the bottom half of the fifth inning.
Shortstop Tiffany Hebert made it the third straight inning that the Cajuns leadoff batter reached base when she lined a single deep into left field. Jill Robertson drew a walk to give the Cajuns two baserunners with no outs for the third straight inning.
Gomez, a strikeout victim in each of her five previous at bats against Hollowell, cashed in for the Cajuns when she lifted a three-run home run to straightaway center field to cut the Wildcats lead to 5-3. The home run was Gomez's 40th of her career and third off of Hollowell.
The Cajuns kept the pressure on Hollowell and UA when Brittany Bryant drew a walk and Lacey Bertucci was issued a one-out walk. As she did in previous innings, Hollowell provided the Cats with timely strikeouts as she fanned Crystal George and pinch hitter Leslie Pierce to keep the UA lead at 5-3.
Louisiana-Lafayette's defense which was having an uncharacteristic day before the sixth inning started having already committed four errors, suffered two more setbacks that allowed the Wildcats to pull away in the top of the sixth.
Coburn led off the inning with a walk. Balko then sent a grounder to Ashley Evans at third base who flipped over to Bryant for the attempted putout of Coburn at second, but Bryant wasn't able to hold on to the ball and Coburn moved to third base. Evans then misplayed a grounder from Martinez that allowed Coburn to score and make it 6-3.
After Von Liechtenstein struck out for what would have been the third out of the inning, Caitlin Lowe sent a rising line drive over the head of Robertson in center field that cleared the bases and wound up being an inside the park home run for Lowe that extended the Arizona lead to 10-3.
The Cajuns got an infield single from Robertson in the sixth inning and a leadoff walk from Bryant in the seventh inning. Hollowell ended the game striking out three straight following the Bryant walk to finish with 16 strikeouts.
Heather Bobbitt pitched a pitched a perfect seventh inning in relief of Mitchell striking out one UA batter and giving up no hits and no walks.
Mitchell took the loss for the Cajuns and fell to 17-6 on the season. She struck out 11 UA hitters and only allowed two earned runs. The senior ace hurler walked six.
Schultz led the Wildcats with three hits while Lowe was tops on the team with four RBI. Seven UA starters scored at least one run led by two apiece from Balko, Martinez and Schultz.
No. 11 Louisiana-Lafayette will be back in action on Tuesday, March 29 in a 5 p.m. doubleheader with in-state rival and future Sun Belt Conference opponent Louisiana-Monroe at Ragin' Cajuns Softball Park. The ULM twinbill finishes off the schedule for March and ends the team's current homestand. The doubleheader marks the beginning of 26 straight games against NCAA Midwest Region opponents to finish the 2005 regular season.
Arizona 10, Louisiana-Lafayette
3 (Mar 27, 2005 at Lafayette, La.)
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Arizona............. 020 035 0 - 10 9 0 (26-2)
Louisiana-Lafayette. 000 030 0 - 3 4 6 (22-7)
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Pitchers: Arizona - Hollowell. Louisiana-Lafayette -
Mitchell; Bobbitt(7).
Win-Hollowell(17-1) Loss-Mitchell(17-6) T-2:50 A-578
HR ARIZ - Lowe (2)
HR UL - Gomez (7)
NOTE: Arizona head coach Mike Candrea ejected from the game in the bottom of the fifth inning.
-- Ragin' Cajuns --
