Winner-Take-All Contest of NCAA Regional Goes to Baylor
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No. 13 national seed Louisiana forced the winner-take-all game in the NCAA Softball Lafayette Regional on Sunday, May 19 at Yvette Girourad Field at Lamson Park with a 13-0 (5 inn.) win over Baylor but came up one run short in the regional final as a 4-3 win by the Bears advanced the visitors to the super regional round.
The game two loss closed out the 2024 season for Louisiana (45-19, 22-2 SBC) which earned the right to host an NCAA Regional tournament at Lamson Park for the first time since 2016 following an incredible turnaround starting in mid-March.
For the second straight season the Ragin' Cajuns forced the winner-take-all contest in a regional, however fell just short of back-to-back super regional appearances for the first time since 2015-16.
The day started with Louisiana gaining a measure of revenge for Saturday's run-rule loss to Baylor (35-21), returning the favor after a 10-run fourth inning broke a 3-0 contest wide open.
Brooke Ellestad (3-for-4, HR, 6 RBI) and Laney Credeur (3-for-3, double, 3 RBI) charged UL's 14-hit attack with three hits apiece and led by Ellestad's grand slam the duo combined for nine RBI.
Chloe Riassetto and Sam Landry combined for the five inning, three-hit shutout that continued the Cajuns season and earned head coach Gerry Glasco his 300th career victory.
The run production pushed Ellestad's career-high season total above 50, where her final tally was 54, while Riassetto collected her second win of the season over Baylor and fifth Top 25 RPI win.
The second contest began with a leadoff home run from BU's Emily Hott, but the Cajuns had another busy first inning with five players reaching base leading to a pair of sacrifice flies that provided a 2-1 advantage.
The teams swapped runs over the next two innings with the latter an RBI single down the left field line from Cecilia Vasquez in the bottom of the third that returned the lead to Louisiana once again at 3-2.
Landry, who had taken over in relief of Riassetto after a leadoff home run in the second, held the Bears in check until the first two batters of the fifth reached to start the frame. The runners later scored after a sacrifice bunt moved them into scoring position, lifting Baylor into a 4-3 lead.
Riassetto (3.1 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 K) re-entered to get UL out of a bases loaded jam and re-asserted her control holding the Bears scoreless the rest of the way.
The Ragin' Cajuns were one defensive play made shy of forcing extra innings. Baylor center field Taylor Strain threw out Vasquez in the sixth inning attempting to score on a Maddie Hayden single.
Mihyia Davis picked up a second straight two-hit game, capping of a string of six hits over the final three games of the Lafayette Regional to push her final season total to 91 making her only the second player in program history to post a 90-hit season (92, Danyele Gomez in 2006).
Louisiana out-hit Baylor 9-8 in game two and ended Championship Sunday with a 23-hit effort. The Sunday total increased the team's final season total to 537 hits – the second-most in the Glasco era, fourth straight season with 500-plus and only 35 off the record (572 in 2012).
The Ragin' Cajuns and Bears met in a regional final for the first time since the 2015 event hosted by UL at Lamson Park. This time around, it was Baylor with the upper-hand in the winner-take-all affair.
