University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Another Thriller: Cajuns Edged By LSU in Regional Final
5/21/2006 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Sunday, May 21, 2006
BATON ROUGE – The rematch between the 15th-ranked Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns softball team and the 12th-ranked Louisiana State Tigers was just as thrilling and pressured packed as Saturday's winner's bracket final.
Unfortunately the game was once again decided in the Tigers' favor as a Vanessa Soto sacrifice fly in the bottom of the seventh inning scored Quinlan Duhon to send LSU to a 5-4 victory here Sunday afternoon at Tiger Park.
The loss eliminated the Ragin' Cajuns (50-12) from the 2006 NCAA Tournament and ended the squad's 2006 season.
For the second straight day the two in-state softball powerhouses fought tooth and nail down to the wire. The lead changed three times and the score was tied twice.
Seniors Ashley Evans and Danyele Gomez each homered for UL to stake the visitors to a 3-1 lead in the fifth inning.
Gomez' home run was her 30th of the season making her only the third player – joining Stacey Nuveman and Laura Espinoza – in NCAA Division I history to reach 30 home runs in a single season.
The Tigers bounced back in the bottom of the fifth inning when Leslie Klein hit a three-run home run to put the hosts back in front 4-3.
A clutch two-out single from redshirt freshman Karli Hubbard in the top of the sixth inning scored pinch runner Kelsey Cammarata to pull the Cajuns into a 4-4 tie
Pitching another gut-wrenching performance, senior pitcher Ashley Kirchberg retired the Tigers in order in the bottom of the sixth to keep the game tied. That inning was Kirchberg's 26th inning of the Baton Rouge Regional.
Emily Turner answered the call in the top of the seventh inning when she was faced with the Cajuns home run trio of Gomez, Lacey Bertucci and Evans. Turner retired them in order to keep the 4-4 tie intact heading into the bottom of the seventh inning.
Kirchberg, starting her 27th inning, hit Duhon with a pitch and then issued a walk to Lauren Castle to give the Tigers two runners on with no outs.
Camille Harris put down a sacrifice bunt to advance the runners to second and third base. The Cajuns issued an intentional walk to Klein to ensure a force play at any base should Soto hit a grounder in the infield.
Instead Soto got a hold of a Kirchberg offering and laced a fly ball into shallow left field. However, the ball forced Gomez to lean backwards to catch it pulling her momentum backwards. Her throw to try to catch Duhon was not in time and the Tigers scored to claim the Baton Rouge Regional championship.
Gomez ended the game 1-for-4 to end the regional 7-for-16 leading all hitters in the Baton Rouge Regional with seven base hits.
Six seniors – Brittany Bryant, Evans, Gomez, Kirchberg, Krystal Lewallen, and Leslie Pierce – all ended their collegiate careers.
The Tigers scored first when a Castle leadoff single blossomed. Pinch runner Dee Dee Henderson worked her way to third base on a grounder to Kirchberg and a sacrifice bunt. Soto hit a grounder deep in the hole at shortstop that Codi Runyan fielded and threw to Bertucci at first base but it bounced in the infield allowing Soto to reach safely and Henderson to score for a 1-0 lead.
UL answered the Tigers score when Evans collected her first hit of the regional. Evans unloaded her 21st home run of the season over the left field fence to pull the Cajuns into a 1-1 tie.
The score remained the same until Gomez' two-run home run in the fifth inning gave the Cajuns their first lead of the day.
Back-to-back singles from Duhon and Castle to start the fifth inning set the stage for Klein's home run which swung the momentum back in the Tigers favor.
The 2006 season comes to a close for the Ragin' Cajuns. It ends with the program's fifth, 50-win season in the past six seasons and the squad's 16th appearance in the NCAA Tournament,
CAJUN CLIPPINGS: UL is now 34-25 all-time in NCAA Regionals play (15-11 under co-head coaches Stefni and Michael Lotief)…UL ended the season with 102 home runs making the 2006 team the first in school history to finish with 100 home runs…UL becomes only the fourth program in DI history to reach 100 home runs – Arizona, Michigan and Texas-San Antonio the others…Danyele Gomez participated in her 249th game of the season tying the school career record for most games played…Sunday's appearance was UL's 12th all-time on Championship Sunday…UL is now 5-6 all-time at Tiger Park in NCAA Regional action.
#12
Louisiana State 5, #15Louisiana-Lafayette 4
(May 21, 2006 at Baton Rouge, La.)
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Louisiana-Lafayette. 010 021 0 - 4 7 0
(50-12)
Louisiana State..... 100 030 1 - 5 7 0
(54-12)
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Pitchers: Louisiana-Lafayette - Kirchberg. Louisiana
State - Turner.
Win-Turner(27-7) Loss-Kirchberg(26-3) T-2:02
A-1208
HR UL - Gomez (30); Evans (21).
HR LSU - Klein.
-- Ragin' Cajuns --
