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UL - Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns softball team will host their final weekend series at Alfred and Helen Lamson Ragin’ Cajuns Softball Park on Saturday and Sunday. Sunday’s game will serve as Senior Day for the Cajuns’ three seniors – Brooke Brodhead (Lafayette, La.), Vanessa Soto (San Diego, Calif.) and Holly Tankersley (Kirbyville, Texas).
The Lady Cajuns softball team wraps up the regular season with a three-game Sun Belt Conference series against in-state rival ULM. The series starts with a doubleheader on Saturday, May 3 beginning at 1:00 p.m., before concluding on Sunday, May 4 with a single game at 12:00 p.m. Sunday’s game is Senior Day for the Cajuns’ three seniors and will be televised on My KLAF in the Acadiana area.
The Cajuns and Warhawks met earlier this season in the first game of the year with UL taking a 6-0 victory. In the game against the Warhawks earlier this season, the Cajuns scored six runs thanks in large part to a 3-run home run by Tankersley. Junior Karli Hubbard (Lafayette, La.) added two hits, a pair of runs and an RBI in the game as well.
Louisiana also relied on a solid pitching effort by freshman Donna Bourgeois (Lafayette, La.) in her Cajuns debut. The rookie worked a complete game scattering just six hits, striking out seven batters to claim her first win and shutout of her Ragin’ Cajuns career.
The Cajuns saw their season-long winning streak end at 18 games on Wednesday as they dropped a 2-0 decision to No. 9 Houston. The Cajuns downed the Cougars 4-0 in the second game of the doubleheader to improve to 19-1 (.950) overall in the month of April.
The Ragin’ Cajuns are 20-0 at Lamson Park. Louisiana has currently won 23 consecutive games at Lamson Park. UL has outscored their opponents 158-to-12 at home this season and 183-to-12 during their 23-game home winning streak. The Cajuns have also boasted 16 shutouts at Lamson Park during the streak.
Louisiana has only finished the year undefeated at home once in their history. The last time the Cajuns finished the season perfect at home was 1993 when Louisiana finished 22-0 en route to their first ever College World Series appearance.
The Cajuns are batting .368 as a team this season at home. UL has blasted 17 home runs at home this season, with six triples, and 26 doubles. They are led by junior Hubbard who boasts a .519 clip in Lafayette. Hubbard is followed closely by Tankersley who has a .500 batting average at home. Tankersley leads the Cajuns in hits, triples, home runs, RBI, total bases, slugging percentage and on base percentage at Lamson Park this season.
In the circle, the Cajuns pitching staff boasts a 0.50 ERA at Lamson Park. Opponents are batting just .112 against Louisiana pitching with just a pair of extra base hits.
Bourgeois is perfect at home on the season. The freshman has made 11 appearances in Lamson Park registering an 8-0 record with a perfect 0.00 ERA.
Bourgeois is followed closely by Ashley Brignac (River Ridge, La.). The “ace” of the pitching staff is 9-0 at home in seven appearances with a 0.92 earned run average.
Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns softball team clinched their seventh Sun Belt Conference Regular Season Championship last weekend with a sweep of Troy. The Cajuns’ final game with the Trojans was rained out making it mathematically impossible for any SBC team to catch the first place Cajuns.
UL was hurt during the 2007 season by a rain out. The canceled game contributed to the Cajuns falling a half a game short of claiming their seventh consecutive Sun Belt Conference Regular Season Championship. This season the Cajuns have had two rain outs. However, it was the final of the two rain outs that secured the conference title for the Cajuns. The Ragin’ Cajuns are 17-2 in Sun Belt Conference play this season with three games to play. Every other Sun Belt school has at least six losses in conference action.
The regular season championship is the seventh for Louisiana in the last eight years. The Cajuns were the only team in the conference to win the regular season before being edged last season.
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Chris Whitehead
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