University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns: Softball
2/11/2006 12:00:00 AM | Softball
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Cajuns Extend
Season-Opening Start to 6-0 With Win Over McNeese
Friday, Feb. 11, 2005
LAFAYETTE – The pitching tandem of Brooke Mitchell and Heather Bobbitt combined to strikeout 15 batters and Brittany Bryant led the offense with three hits and four RBI as the fifth-ranked Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns softball team manhandled McNeese State 10-0 in six innings here Friday evening in game one of the Ragin' Cajuns Invitational. The Cajuns (6-0) jumped out to a 4-0 lead with a four-spot in the third inning and pulled away for their fourth mercy-rule victory of the season with five unearned runs in the sixth inning. The two teams were locked in a scoreless tie through two innings. Louisiana-Lafayette was able to breakthrough with a pair of two-out, two-run home runs off the bats of Brittany Bryant and Lacey Bertucci – who each extended their hitting streaks to six games – to lay claim to the early 4-0 advantage. The Cowgirls (1-7), who dropped their seventh straight game since defeating Prairie View in the season opener here last Friday, couldn't muster any sort of an attack against the Mitchell-Bobbitt two-headed strikeout machine. Mitchell went three innings and fanned seven of the 13 batters she faced. Bobbitt made it look even easier when she entered in the bottom of the fourth inning and promptly struck out the first seven batters that she faced en route to a total of eight strikeouts over her three innings of relief. Bryant finished the game 3-for-4 with a team-high four RBI and provided the necessary runs for the mercy-rule victory when she dropped a two-run single into left field that McNeese's Rachael Philips couldn't get to in time. Bryant's third hit of the contest scored pinch hitter Codi Runyan and pinch runner Michelle Bergeaux to make it 8-0. Bryant's night increased her fast start this season to 11-for-20 (.550) with nine RBI. The six-game hitting streak is a career-best for the Beaumont, Texas, native who is making an early claim for NFCA All-South Region and All-Sun Belt Conference candidacy. As Desi Chatman pinch-hit double deep into the right center field gap two batters later scored pinch runner Kelsey Cammarata and Bryant with the final two runs of the game and put Louisiana-Lafayette up 10-0. The Cajuns' bats got off to a slow start on a overcast and cool Friday night. McNeese starter Jessica Denham held the hosts to no hits through two complete. It was a Danyele Gomez single into shallow left center field that broke marked the first hit of the game for either team and ignited the Ragin' Cajuns' two-out rally. Bryant stepped up to the plate a lofted a towering two-run homer that passed between the light pole and bleachers out in left field. The two-out party continued for the Cajuns just two batters later. Catcher Joy Webre drew a walk and then Lacey Bertucci extended her hit streak to six games when she clubbed one low in the zone and dropped into deep into the left field stands for a 4-0 lead. The Cowgirls made it through five innings still down 5-0. However, the wheels came off of their proverbial wagon when the top of the sixth inning began with back-to-back infield errors that gave Louisiana-Lafayette runners on the corners with no outs. After a Jill Robertson infield single to shortstop brought home Crystal George with the sixth run of the game, it was the Cowgirls third infield error of the inning that loaded the bases for the Cajuns. That's when 2-RBI doubles from Bryant and Chatman brought home four more runs and closed the book on the Ragin' Cajuns sixth straight victory to open the 2005 season. The shutout was the Cajuns' pitching staff's fifth of the season (out of just six games) and extended the staff's streak of consecutive innings without an earned run allowed to 36 straight. The win also extended the best season-opening start under co-head coaches Stefni and Michael Lotief to 6-0 and moved the team within eight more wins of equaling the best undefeated start in program history which was 14-0 done by the 1993 team. Mitchell picked up the victory, her fifth of the season, which moved her to 96 career wins. Her strikeout tally moved her career total to 1,011 which is seven shy of tying Texas State's Nicole Neuerburg for 27th on the all-time NCAA Division I strikeout list. Bobbitt pitched effectively for three innings fanning eight of the 11 batters that she faced and was credit with the save. McNeese did not advance a single runner past second base and three of the times MSU got runners to second base was because of three of the combined four walks issued to Cowgirl batters by Mitchell and Bobbitt. No. 5 Louisiana-Lafayette will return to action on Saturday as the Ragin' Cajuns Invitational continues here at the Ragin' Cajuns Softball Park. The fifth-ranked Cajuns will face McNeeese State at 1:30 p.m., which will be immediately followed by a 4:30 p.m., contest against Mississippi State. McNeese State continues play in the Ragin' Cajuns Invitational Saturday in the opening game scheduled for 11 a.m., against Mississippi State. LINE SCORE -- Ragin' Cajuns -- |
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