University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
Middle Tennessee
Cajuns Clipped by Middle Tennessee
3/8/2007 5:00:00 AM | Softball
LAFAYETTE ? Three unearned runs in the fourth inning led Middle Tennessee to a 4-3 victory over the 15th-ranked Louisiana 's Ragin' Cajuns softball team in the rubber match of a three-game Sun Belt Conference series on Thursday morning.
Middle Tennessee claimed the series 2-1 with the victory.
Both teams were held scoreless through the first three innings. Holly Tankersley held the Blue Raiders (11-13, 2-1 Sun Belt) to two hits.
The Ragin' Cajuns (21-6, 1-2 Sun Belt) had the table set in the bottom of the third inning after Vallie Gaspard and Karli Hubbard both reached on infield singles. No outs were on the scoreboard with the top of the lineup ready to bat.
Codi Runyan and Tankersley both hit into fielder's choice grounders for the forcing out Gaspard and then Hubbard at third base. Lacey Bertucci struck out swinging to end the inning.
Justine Cerda began the Blue Raiders fourth inning with a grounder to third base that Melissa Verde bobbled allowing Cerda to reach first base on the error.
A Katie Mielke sacrifice bunt advanced pinch runner Corrie Abel to second base. Tankersley got Muriel Ledbetter to pop up to Runyan at shortstop for the second out.
With the inning still alive because of the error, Martha Davis then looped a single into shallow right field just over the reach of Tara Hamilton to score Abel for a 1-0 lead.
Ashley Cline then followed with a home run that banged off the left field foul pole to score two more runs and up the MT lead to 3-0.
The Ragin' Cajuns got a run back in their half of the fourth inning. A double by Verde gave UL a baserunner and she was brought home on a two-out double from Lana Bowers to trim the deficit to 3-1.
The Blue Raiders tacked on an insurance run in the top of the seventh inning. Shelby Stiner got a one-out single down the right field line which was followed by a single to center field off the bat of Melissa Weiland.
Caitlin McLure put down a bunt that dropped beyond the reach of Verde and rolled past Runyan into shallow left field allowing Whitney Darlington (re-entered to run for Weiland) to score upping the lead to 4-1.
Louisiana-Lafayette made one final push in the bottom of the seventh inning. Hubbard reached on a fielder's choice with one out. Runyan was then hit by pitch
A Tankersley grounder moved Runyan to second and Hubbard to third base. Bertucci worked the count full before drawing a walk to load the bases.
Desi Chatman lifted a double into right center field to score Hubbard and Runyan to slice the lead to 4-3 and keep the rally going.
Verde swung at the first offering from MT starter Lindsey Vander Lugt and it was a grounder to first base that Cerda picked up and tagged the base for the final out.
Tankersley fell to 8-3 on the season with the loss. She didn't allow an earned run and posted five strikeouts over five innings.
Brittany Cuevas came on in relief in the sixth inning and tossed the final two innings.
Vander Lugt picked up the victory for the Blue Raiders and improved to 7-9.
Louisiana 's Ragin' Cajuns will now take to the road for three more Sun Belt Conference games this week. UL travels to Boca Raton , Fla. , to meet Florida Atlantic on Saturday and Sunday March 10 and 11.
The FAU series starts on Saturday, March 10 at 5 p.m. (CST).
LINE SCORE
Middle Tennessee 4, Louisiana-Lafayette 3 (Mar 08, 2007 at Lafayette , La. )
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Middle Tennessee .... 000 300 1 - 4 7 0 (11-13, 2-1 SBC)
Louisiana-Lafayette. 000 100 2 - 3 8 1 (21-6, 1-2 SBC)
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Pitchers: Middle Tennessee - Vander Lugt, Lindsey. Louisiana-Lafayette - Tankersley, Holly;
Cuevas, Brittany(6).
Win-Vander Lugt, Lindsey(7-9) Loss-Tankersley, Holly(8-3) T-1:44 A-296
HR MT - Cline, Ashley.
-- Ragin' Cajuns --
