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It's easy for pitchers and defenders to lose focus with a double-digit lead. It's probably tougher when that lead comes before you throw your first pitch or field your first ground ball.
That's what happened to the University of Louisiana softball team Sunday in the finale of its Sun Belt Conference weekend series against host North Texas. The Cajuns pushed across 12 runs in the top of the first inning, and coasted home from there with a 21-9 five-inning run-rule victory over the Mean Green.
UL pitchers Ashley Kirchberg and Krystal Lewallen uncharacteristically gave up nine hits and eight earned runs to the Mean Green, after each had recorded shutout efforts in Saturday's doubleheader sweep - Kirchberg's a no-hitter.
But who could have blamed them for having a little bit of a letdown, after the 13th-ranked Cajuns (39-8, 7-2 Sun Belt) sent 17 batters to the plate against three UNT pitchers in the first inning at UNT's Denia Park.
In all, the Cajuns finished with 17 hits, four of them home runs including a pair by Ashley Evans and one each from Brittany Bryant and Lacey Bertucci. Those shots put UL at 88 team homers in 47 games this season, tying the school record with eight regular-season games and postseason play remaining.
Sunday's easy win locked up UL's first league sweep of the year and kept the Cajuns in first place in the league race with two weekends remaining. In the process, UL also scored its most runs ever in a Sun Belt game and tallied the most ever by a North Texas (18-30, 1-8) opponent.
<center><p><a href="http://www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060424/SPORTS/604240306/1006" target="_blank">The rest of the story</a>
Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com
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Two-run singles by Codi Runyan, Karli Hubbard and Tara Hamilton in the first inning, the first two off UNT loser Kristina Fowler (15-16), took any suspense out of the weekend finale. Bertucci, batting for the second time in the inning after an RBI ground ball her first time up, then laced a line drive over the 225-foot left-centerfield wall for a two-run homer.
That shot was her 19th of the season and 44th of her career, putting her third all-time in school history.
But Evans almost caught her in the season chase, poking a two-run shot to right field to highlight a four-run second inning off third reliever Jessica Smith. She later added a solo homer to left center in the fifth to wrap up UL's scoring and give her 18 homers this season.
Bryant, whose RBI double in the second opened the scoring in that inning, had the other big shot with a three-run homer in the third inning for her 10th of the year. That gave the Cajuns four double-figure homer producers this season (national leader Danyele Gomez, who hit her 24th on Saturday, was "only" 2-for-3 with two runs and an RBI Sunday).
North Texas, the second-leading home-run producer in the league, got a three-run homer from Sarah waters and a two-run shot from Fowler. Katya Muller and Taylor Johnston added the other runs on two-RBI singles as the Mean Green scored in four of the five innings.
But UL scored in every inning and led 20-4 at one point. The first five hitters in the lineup accounted for 14 runs, with Bryant collecting four RBI and Bertucci and Evans three each.
Kirchberg (18-1) threw the first four innings and Lewallen pitched the fifth as the Cajuns improved to 11-0 against UNT in Sun Belt play and 18-1 overall.
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