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Just when the nightmare looked to be getting worse, Brittany Bryant bailed out the University of Louisiana softball team Sunday afternoon.
Bryant's solo home run in the bottom of the sixth inning kept the Ragin' Cajuns from suffering their second gut-wrenching loss of the afternoon, providing the winning margin in a 7-6 victory over Western Kentucky in the nightcap of their Sun Belt Conference doubleheader.
The visiting Hilltoppers had stunned the 13th-ranked hosts 8-0 in the opener, with freshman pitcher Ryan Rogge no-hitting the nation's second-ranked offensive team. Then, in the nightcap, WKU left fielder Alana Towns hit the Cajuns with another body shot with a sixth-inning grand-slam home run that capped a comeback from six runs down and tied the game 6-6.
UL, in danger of losing its first-ever Sun Belt series, turned to Bryant, one of six seniors honored in pregame ceremonies prior to their final regular-season home game. The Beaumont, Texas, product delivered, taking an Adrienne Lathrop rise ball over the left-field fence for her 11th homer of the year.
"Lacy (UL assistant coach Lacy Prejean) told me before I came up to make this the best at-bat of my life," Bryant said. "Thanks for the pressure. But I knew she (Lathrop) was going to throw me the rise ... I'd popped it up twice, and was just trying to hit the middle and get a hit."
<center><p><a href="http://www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060501/SPORTS/605010316/1006" target="_blank">The rest of the story</a>
Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com
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Ashley Kirchberg (21-1) made short work of the Hilltoppers (26-26, 5-7 Sun Belt) in the ninth to assure the Cajuns (42-10, 9-3) of their fourth straight league series win and keep UL atop the Sun Belt standings entering the final week of the regular season.
Kirchberg was spotted a 6-0 lead in the first inning when the Cajuns jumped on WKU starter Jennifer Kempf. Holly Tankersley's two-run single keyed a four-hit, four-walk inning, but Lathrop (14-14) came in relief in the second and allowed only three hits the rest of the way.
WKU cut the margin to 6-2 on Renikka Toliver's two-run double, but Kirchberg retired the next 12 batters before the 'Toppers loaded the bases in the sixth and Towns poked her third homer of the year.
"Just one missed pitch changed that whole game," Kirchberg said. "I thought I was going to have a heart attack out there, but when Brittany had that home run it was such a relief."
The Cajuns got no relief from the surprising Rogge (4-6) in the opener, with the freshman tying UL in knots and recording eight strikeouts. UL's only baserunners came on three walks.
Meanwhile, WKU's bats collected nine hits off Cajun loser Krystal Lewallen (21-8), eight of those coming in the final two innings after Shelby Smith's solo home run in the fourth gave the Hilltoppers a 1-0 lead.
Western got five in the fifth on nine-hole hitter Sam Cronk's three-run homer and a two-run single by Rebecca Horesky, and capped off the win - UL's first-ever run-rule loss in its home park - with two runs on three hits in the sixth inning.
"We needed to find a way to answer," said UL coach Stefni Lotief, "and we did that in the second game. There aren't any excuses for the first game, it was just an emotional day and we had some mental breakdowns."
Bryant made the breakdowns hurt a little less with UL's school-record 92nd homer of the year.
"We had to keep our intensity up," Bryant said. "The coaches told us after the first game that we had to flush that one and come back out. We were out for blood (in the second game), and we just got a little careless. Hopefully we'll learn from our mistakes."
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