University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
Western Kentucky
Cajuns Complete Series-Opening Win Over WKU
5/2/2005 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Sunday, May 2, 2004
The two teams began the game at 1 p.m. Saturday, but rain showers began falling and continued through the rest of the evening forcing the game to be completed Sunday afternoon.
Brooke Mitchell completed her return to the pitching circle by fanning 10 Hilltopper batters and allowing just one hit over five innings. Mitchell had missed the previous week after being hit by a line drive off the bat of FIU's Jennifer Owens April 18.
The Pasadena, Texas, native picked up her 35th win of the season, tying her with former teammate Melissa Coronado for the single-season record for victories. The strikeout tally was her 24th double-digit strikeout performance of the season and increased her season total to 420.
Gomez finished the game 2-for-3 with three RBI. Freshman Holly Tankersley went 2-for-2 with a solo home run and two runs scored.
As a team, Louisiana-Lafayette belted four home runs to increase its season total to 71 marking the third straight season of 70-plus home runs.
With the win, Louisiana-Lafayette increased its Sun Belt win streak, dating back to last season, to 15 games and remained unbeaten in league play this season at 12-0. The Cajuns have now won 19 straight Sun Belt games at Ragin' Cajuns Softball Park.
Louisiana-Lafayette carried a 3-1 lead when the game resumed. Second baseman Brittany Bryant hit a two-out, three-run home run in Saturday's action just before the game was delayed.
The home run came after the Toppers got on the board in the top half of the first when Riley Garcia scored on a passed ball.
After a scoreless second inning, the Cajuns got back-to-back home runs from Tankersley and Gomez to increase the margin to 5-1 after three complete.
A leadoff single from Joy Webre opened a two-run fourth inning for Louisiana-Lafayette. Hillary Guidry laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance Webre to second. Tiffany Hebert was then hit by a pitch from WKU starter Allison Silver. With Tankersley up next, WKU opted for a pitching change bringing in Ashley Schwartz for a relief outing.
Schwartz hit Tankersely to load the bases and then issued walks to Gomez and Bryant to score two more runs and give the Cajuns a 7-1 lead.
A bases loaded, fielder's choice grounder off the bat of Renita Pennington scored Lindsay Gatti with the Hilltoppers second run of the game to trim the lead to 7-2. Gatti led off the top of the fifth with a single and moved to third after Mitchell hit Alana Towns with a pitch and issued a walk to Garcia to load the bases.
Louisiana-Lafayette got the run back in the bottom half of the fifth on a two-out RBI single up the middle from Hebert.
A leadoff home run in the sixth by Gomez, her second of the game, finished off the scoring and gave the Cajuns a 9-2 lead.
Heather Bobbitt pitched two strong innings of relief for the Cajuns, retiring the Hilltoppers in order aside from a throwing error in the seventh.
Silver suffered the loss for WKU, allowing seven runs (all earned) off six hits in 3 1/3 innings.
Louisiana-Lafayette 9, Western Kentucky 2
(May 02, 2004 at Ragin' Cajuns Park)
------------------------------------------------------------Western
Kentucky.... 100 010 0 - 2 1 0 (33-17, 8-5 SUN BELT)
Louisiana-Lafayette. 302 211 X - 9 9 1 (46-6, 12-0 SUN
BELT)
------------------------------------------------------------Pitchers:
Western Kentucky - Silver; Schwartz(4); Sevco(5).
Louisiana-Lafayette - Mitchell; Bobbitt(6).
Win-Mitchell(35-3) Loss-Silver(17-10) T-1:53 A-0
HR UL - Tankersley; Gomez 2; Bryant.
GAME NOTES:
* Completion of Saturday's first game. Game began in the
bottom of the first inning with two outs and a 0-1 count
on UL Lafayette's Lacey Bertucci
* Brooke Mitchell ties Melissa Coronado for the
single-season record for victories with her 35th of the
season. *Cajuns extend Sun Belt win streak, dating back
to last season, to 15 games *Cajuns win their 19th
straight Sun Belt game at Ragin' Cajuns Softball Park
-LOUISIANA'S RAGIN'
CAJUNS-
