University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
NORTH TEXAS
Cajuns Finish Off North Texas, Advance To Winner's Bracket Final of Sun Belt Tournament
5/14/2005 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Friday, May 14, 2004
With the win the Ragin' Cajuns (53-6) advanced into the winner's bracket final against second-seeded Florida International (30-32) at 6:30 p.m. Friday evening.
The game was resumed in the top of the fourth inning after the game was suspended due to rain Thursday evening.
Mitchell came back and struck out the side in the fourth and fifth innings. The USA Softball National Player of the Year candidate struck out 11 in six innings of work as she extended her winning streak to 17 games and moved within one win of becoming the 12th player in NCAA history to reach 40 wins in a season.
Mitchell (39-3) allowed only one hit and fanned 10 of the first 18 batters she faced. The Pasadena, Texas, native collected her 27th double-digit strikeout game of the season.
“With North Texas not having seen Brooke (Mitchell), we knew it was going to play to our advantage,” said Louisiana-Lafayette head coach Stefni Lotief. “Our team stayed focused at the plate and played team offense”
After taking a 2-0 lead Thursday, second baseman Brittany Bryant broke the game open with a three-run home run in the Cajuns' first at-bat Friday. The home run was her ninth of the season and gave UL Lafayette a 5-0 lead.
Danyele Gomez led all Cajun hitters with two hits while Bryant led the charge with a game-high three RBI. Gomez and Evans both scored two runs.
The Cajuns took the lead Thursday before the game was suspended by plating two runs in the first inning. Gomez scored on a throwing error by NT shortstop Brittiny Chapman and Evans scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Joy Webre.
Hillary Guidry led off the fourth with an infield single which was followed by a short chopper to third base by Holly Tankersley. Two batters later, with two outs, Bryant deposited a home run over the left field wall and into the bleachers. The blast increased Bryant's two-out RBI leading total to 14.
UL Lafayette plated two more runs in the sixth inning. Gomez scored from third on a wild pitch from NT's Mandy Hacker and Lacey Bertucci hit a deep sacrifice fly into center field to score Ashley Evans.
Louisiana-Lafayette extended its win streak to 12 straight games and improved to 5-0 against the Mean Green this season.
The win was also the 20th of the season at Ragin' Cajuns Softball Park – extending the streak of consecutive seasons with 20 home wins to six. Since the 1999 season, UL Lafayette has posted 20-plus victories in its friendly confines.
The Ragin' Cajuns will return to action against FIU looking to advance into Saturday's 4 p.m. championship game. FIU has never defeated the Cajuns in Lafayette and the Cajuns are 3-0 all-time in Sun Belt Tournament play against the Golden Panthers.
-- SUN BELT CONFERENCE --
