Cajuns Take Two Wins, Capture No. 1 Seed for Bracket Play

Holly Tankersley held Colgate to three hits over three innings pitched in the circle and posted four RBI at the plate in leading UL to a 10-1 win in five innings.

After three scoreless innings the Ragin’ Cajuns (16-2) strung together five runs over the final four innings in a 5-0 win over Tennessee-Martin to wrap up round robin play with a 3-1 record.

Brittany Cuevas struck out nine UTM batters and held the Skyhawks to only three hits over seven innings for her second shutout of the tournament.

Freshman Vallie Gaspard had a banner day at the plate. She managed to reach base in all five plate appearances including a 3-for-3 showing in the UTM contest.

No. 14 Louisiana-Lafayette will conclude play in the Northwestern State Invitational on Sunday, Feb. 25 in the single-elimination bracket play round. UL will meet Alcorn State in the semifinals at 11:45 a.m., for the right to play for the championship.

Game 1 vs. Colgate

The Ragin’ Cajuns jumped in front of the Red Raiders (1-2) in their first at bat.

Codi Runyan led off with a single up the middle which was followed by a double down the left field line by Karli Hubbard. With Runyan on third base, Tankersley flied out to center field for a sacrifice fly that scored Runyan for a quick 1-0 lead.

With two outs, Melissa Verde was hit by an offering from Colgate pitcher Jesse McCarrick and then stole second base to move into scoring position.

Desi Chatman hit a grounder to third base that Colgate third baseman Meg Mylan threw away at first base allowing Hubbard and Verde to score pushing the lead to 3-0.

Colgate got on the scoreboard in the top of the second inning. A one-out double by Whitney Scott followed by a single by Amanda Eccleston produced a run cutting the UL lead to 3-1.

Tankersley got Kortney Hannah to strike out swinging with two runners on in the third inning to preserve the 3-1 lead.

A Verde triple scored Lacey Bertucci in the bottom of the third inning upping the Cajuns lead to 4-1.

Shari Sigur entered the circle in relief of Tankersley to start the fourth inning and made quick work of the Red Raiders to turn the inning back over to the UL bats which erupted in the bottom half of the fourth inning.

The Ragin’ Cajuns batted around and pushed across four more runs to put the game away.

Meagan Godwin began the Cajuns’ half of the fourth with a double to left center field. On the next at bat, Lana Bowers singled into center field to score Godwin and increase the lead to 5-1.

After a pitching change, Gaspard executed a bunt single advancing Bowers to third base. Runyan walked to load the bases.

The Cajuns went small ball again as Hubbard laid down a bunt to squeeze home Bowers making the score 6-1. Tankersley then followed with a fielder’s choice grounder deep enough at shortstop to allow Gaspard to score.

Bertucci drew a walk to reload the bases. After Hubbard was forced out at home on Verde’s at bat, Chatman singled into right field to score Tankersley allowing the Cajuns to take an 8-1 lead into the fifth inning.

Sigur worked another scoreless inning in the top of the fifth inning and the Cajuns added two more runs to enforce the mercy rule and end the contest early.

Bowers singled and moved to second base on a Jessica Lemoine groundout. Runyan bounced a single through the left side and moved into scoring position after stealing second base.

After a Hubbard walk loaded the bases, Tankersley dropped a single into right field allowing Bowers and Runyan to score ending the game at 10-1.

Tankersley picked up her sixth win of the season improving to 6-2. Sigur pitched effectively for two innings after entering the game with a three-run lead and collected her first career save.

UL ended the game with 12 base hits. Runyan, Hubbard and Bowers each had two base hits and every hitter in the starting lineup had at least one base hit.

Game 2 vs. Tennessee-Martin

With the threat of rain showers the Cajuns meeting with Tennessee-Martin was moved up to 11:30 a.m., and was played at Natchitoches Central High School.

Cuevas and UTM starting pitcher Kara Harper kept the opposing lineups off the scoreboard through the first three innings.

The Ragin’ Cajuns stranded runners in scoring position in the second and third innings. UL had the bases loaded in the top of the third inning, but Tankersley lined into a double play to end the threat.

The Ragin’ Cajuns then went two-out magic to score runs in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh innings.

In the fourth inning Godwin singled through the left side and stole second base to move into scoring position. Chatman then singled into shallow right field allowing Godwin to score what proved to be the winning run.

Gaspard started the fifth inning with a bunt single down the first base line. Between two outs she stole second to move into scoring position. With two outs, Tankersley rifled a grounder under the reach of UTM shortstop Stacey Weaver to score Gaspard upping the advantage to 2-0.

Three straight singles with two outs in the sixth inning pushed across another run for Louisiana-Lafayette. Chatman and Bowers had the first two hits then Gaspard followed by slapping a single straight up the middle of the infield scoring Chatman for a 3-0 lead.

In the seventh inning the Cajuns received back-to-back, two-out doubles. Verde doubled to left field then Godwin doubled to right field to score pinch runner Shari Sigur making it 4-0.

Tara Hamilton then followed with a single just inside the foul line in deep right field to score Godwin for a 5-0 edge.

Cuevas retired the Skyhawks in order in the bottom of the seventh inning. She ended the game retiring the final seven batters that she faced.

Cuveas improved to 10-0 with the victory. She lowered her ERA to 0.92 and collected her third shutout of the season.