Lady Cajuns rally for day-one split with Lady Toppers

<! Gomez launched her 14th homer of the year (and 47th in her UL career) ><blockquote><p align=justify>BOWLING GREEN, Ky. - Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns saw their record 33-game Sun Belt Conference winning streak halted here Saturday, but bounced back in style for a softball split with Western Kentucky.

The Cajuns opened the door for the Lady Toppers with a pair of errors that helped the home team to a 3-2 victory in the first game as all three runs against UL All-American Brooke Mitchell (25-7) were unearned.

In Game 2, the visitors powered four home runs and had a season-high 17 hits en route to a 13-5 victory behind undefeated Heather Bobbitt (13-0).

No. 14 Louisiana is now 41-8 overall and 13-1 in league play heading into today's noon doubleheader with WKU (28-19, 9-5). The Cajuns can clinch a fifth straight Sun Belt regular-season title with two more victories.

Senior Jill Robertson's drop of a two-out fly ball with the bases loaded in the second inning gave WKU its first two runs of the opener.

In the fifth inning with runners at first and second with one out, second baseman Brittany Bryant muffed a throw from third baseman Tiffany Hebert on a sacrifice bunt. That allowed pinch runner Renikka Toliver to score the eventual winning run.

UL scored one run in the fourth inning when Ashley Evans led off with her seventh home run of the season. Robertson walked with two out in the fifth, stole second and scored on a Danyele Gomez single to temporarily tie it at 2-2.

The second game was more like it for coach Stefni Lotief as the Cajuns erupted for three runs in the first inning and never looked back.

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Robertson went 3-for-3 and scored three times, going 4-for-6 for the day and increasing her Sun Belt-leading batting average to .369, while Gomez and Bryant each had two hits.

Gomez launched her 14th homer of the year (and 47th in her UL career), while Lacey Bertucci also belted No. 14 of 2005. Catcher Joy Webre hit her sixth of the season, while Tara Hamilton stepped in as a pinch hitter and joined the home run barrage with a solo shot.

After Robertson led off the game with a single, stole second and scored on a Bryant single, Bertucci capped the inning with a two-run home run.

Webre's two-run shot made it 7-2 in the fifth and Gomez had a three-run shot in the sixth. Hamilton's homer started a string of five straight UL hits that produced three more runs in the seventh.
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