University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Cajuns Make Quick Work of Florida State in NFCA Leadoff Classic Opener
2/24/2006 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Friday, Feb. 24, 2006
COLUMBUS, Ga. – The 14th-ranked Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns softball team opened play in the 11th Annual NFCA Leadoff Classic with a bang by cranking four home runs and downing Florida State 14-0 in five innings here Friday afternoon at the South Commons Softball Complex.
No. 14 Louisiana-Lafayette extended its season-opening winning streak to 12 games with the victory. At 12-0, the Ragin' Cajuns are currently off to the best start under co-head coaches Stefni and Michael Lotief and are only two wins shy of equaling the best undefeated start in program history (14-0 in 1993).
The Ragin' Cajuns (12-0) collected 11 base hits to reach double digits in hits for the fifth straight outing.
The Cajuns led 4-0 going into the fifth inning and used two grand slams – one from Deserea Griffin and one from Ashley Evans – to pace a 10-spot in the inning to end the game with the mercy rule.
Both Griffin and Evans led UL with five RBI.
Krystal Lewallen kept her record unblemished by tossing five innings and allowing FSU only one hit for her second straight one-hit shutout. The shutout was Lewallen's fourth complete-game effort of the season.
UL hit four home runs in the game as Lacey Bertucci and Holly Tankersley each hit opposite field tape-measure shots well behind the white picket fences as part of a four-spot in the third inning.
The Cajuns began to chip away at FSU starting pitcher Melissa May in the third inning.
Karli Hubbard opened the UL half of the third with a single through the left side of the infield. She would advance to second on a wild pitch and scored when Griffin dropped a single into center field to put the Cajuns up 1-0.
Two batters later and Bertucci took a May offering and went opposite field over the right field fence to score Griffin and stake UL to a 3-0 lead. Tankersley plated the Cajuns' fourth run of the inning when she too went opposite field off of May. The home run prompted FSU to switch pitchers as Kayla Collins stepped into the circle.
Collins would work her way out of trouble in the fourth inning after the Cajuns loaded the bases with one out. Danyele Gomez and Bertucci would both hit into infield popups to end the threat.
Collins wouldn't be as lucky in the fifth inning as UL provided her with a nightmare. The Cajuns pounded out five hits of which two were grand slams en route to pushing 10 runs across the plate.
The first two runs came before anyone in the crowd could blink their eyes. Tankersely led off with a walk and rounded the bases when Codi Runyan laced a triple off the right field fence. It became 6-0 on the next at bat when Evans sent a grounder through a hole in the left side of the infield to score Runyan.
After Brittany Bryant popped up to the shortstop in shallow left field the Ragin' Cajuns would load the bases after Jessica Lemoine walked and Hubbard singled to right field. Griffin unloaded the basepaths when she sent a towering shot over the right field fence to push the UL lead to 10-0.
Collins issued three straight walks to Gomez, Bertucci and Tankersley and all of a sudden the bags were full of Cajuns once more. Runyan struck out swinging for the second out, but Evans made sure UL would not squander the opportunity as he homered to right field for Louisiana-Lafayette's second grand slam of the inning and advance the score to 14-0.
The Cajuns 14 runs scored marked the seventh time this season that UL reached double figures. The run-rule win was the Cajuns' eighth of the season and fifth straight.
No. 14 Louisiana-Lafayette made the quick turnaround and met No. 25 Iowa (6-4) at 1:30 p.m. (CST) in its second game of pool play on Friday.
-- Ragin' Cajuns --
