<center><table border=6><td><img src="https://forumeus.com/images/seasons/2002-03-lady-cajun-park-c(400).jpg"></td></table>Mr. Hebert and Mr. Harris. <i>Making and taking notes.
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<center><table border=6><td><img src="https://forumeus.com/images/seasons/2002-03-lady-cajun-park-c(400).jpg"></td></table>Mr. Hebert and Mr. Harris. <i>Making and taking notes.
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<i><center>Run win streak to seven games
</i></center><blockquote><p align=justify>LAFAYETTE — Louisiana's Lady Cajun softball team ran its season-high winning streak to seven games with a pair of 8-0 mercy-rule wins over Boston University Monday afternoon at Lady Cajun Park in the final game of the Cajuns’ current nine-game homestand.
Louisiana (14-2) took advantage of the home run in the first game and capitalized on BU miscues in the second in the first-ever meeting between the two schools.
The Cajuns swept their seventh straight twinbill dating back to last season and have now won three straight games by the eight-run mercy rule. Louisiana has collected six run-rule wins out of 16 games this season and has outscored the opposition 105-27.
In game one, Brooke Mitchell and Michael Parrott combined for a one-hit shutout of the Terriers (0-5). The Cajun offense was guided by three home runs hit by Lauren Castle, Danyele Gomez and Joe Webre.
Gomez got the Cajuns rolling in their half of the first when she laced a three-run home run off of the scoreboard in right field for a quick 3-0 lead.
Webre made BU pitcher Tiffany Finateri pay for pitching around Gomez in the third inning with a towering home run over the left field wall and into the bleachers for a 6-0 lead.
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“They challenged our big hitters in the first game and we made them pay with some huge hits,” said head coach Stefni Lotief. “Then they pitched around them later in the game and we made them pay once more as other hitters in the lineup stepped up and answered the call.”
In game two, the Cajuns used a five-run third inning to break open a 1-0 game. The big hit of the inning was a huge grand slam by freshman Brittany Bryant that landed over the left field fence.
Bryant’s blast gave the Cajuns a 6-0 lead after three complete and was Louisiana’s fourth home run of the day giving them 33 for the season through 13 games.
Redshirt freshman Afton Thoms picked up her fourth win of the season and her first combined shutout. The Cajuns were limited to just three hits in the game, but BU pitchers issued nine walks as they worked around hitters.
the Cajun top hitters.
“It seemed as though they picked their poison,” Lotief said. “They either challenged our top hitters and they hit home runs off of them or they pitched around the top hitters and the ones behind them in the lineup made them pay.”
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<blockquote><p align=justify>LAFAYETTE — Louisiana’s Lady Cajuns softball right fielder Danyele Gomez and pitcher Brooke Mitchell were honored as the Louisiana Sports Writers Association Softball Hitter and Pitcher of the Week on Tuesday.
Gomez, a freshman from Metairie, earned the state’s hitter of the week award after going 4-for-6 with three home runs and nine runs batted in the Ragin’ Cajuns sweep over Southern Miss last weekend.
She opened the doubleheader by driving in three of the Cajuns’ four runs with a three-run home run in the bottom of the first inning.
In the second game, Gomez stroked a two-run home run in the bottom of the first inning and another three-run home run in the bottom of the fourth.
Mitchell earned her second pitcher of the week award this season after tossing a no-hitter in the Cajuns’ 4-0 win over Southern Miss in the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader.
It was her second no-hitter of the season. She tossed a perfect game in the season opener against La. Tech.
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She pitched all seven innings and walked only three batters, while striking out five, and faced only one batter over the minimum in the contest. It was her first seven inning no-hitter (Tech was a five-inning game).
This is Mitchell’s second LSWA award this season and Gomez’s first. Mitchell was named the LSWA Pitcher of the Week on Feb. 24 after her dominating performances at Nicholls State Feb. 19.
The Cajuns have won four LSWA weekly awards this season to go along with four Sun Belt Conference weekly awards.
Last week the Cajuns swept the Sun Belt Conference weekly honors as Becky McMurtry and Michael Parrott were named Hitter and Pitcher of the Week.
The Lady Cajuns return to action Thursday when they participate in the 2003 KIA Klassic hosted by Cal State-Fullerton in Fullerton, Calif.
Louisiana will face Long Beach State (9-12) in its opener Thursday at 1 p.m. (CST) and then play 2002 Women’s College World Series runner-up Arizona (26-2) at 5 p.m. (CST).
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<blockquote><p align=justify>LAFAYETTE — Louisiana’s Lady Cajuns softball team left Wednesday for the 2003 KIA Klassic, which runs today through Sunday at Cal State-Fullerton in Fullerton, Calif.
The Cajuns (14-2) will face their toughest challenges of the young season in their ninth straight appearance in the KIA Klassic, one of the most prestigious regular-season events in college softball.
This year’s Klassic features nine teams ranked in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association Top 25 poll — six of which are in the Top 10.
Louisiana’s first appearance in 1994 produced a tournament championship.
The tournament gets under way with pool play today. Louisiana is a member of Pool D and is paired with No. 2 Arizona (26-2), No. 16 Florida State (18-7) and Long Beach State (9-12).
Both Arizona and FSU made it to the semifinals of the 2002 Women’s College World Series, with Arizona advancing to the title game.
Once pool play is over on Friday the teams will be paired in brackets according to their finish in pool play.
The Lady Cajuns will play at 1 p.m. (CST) today against Long Beach State (9-12), and will also match up with the second-ranked Wildcats at 5 p.m. (CST).
Louisiana and Arizona are meeting each other in pool play for the third straight season. The Lady Cajuns will conclude pool play on Friday at 11 a.m. (CST) against FSU.
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Staff Reports
<i>Louisiana SI</i><!--
Bracket play will begin on Friday at 7 p.m. (CST). Depending on where Louisiana finishes in pool play, they may not play until Saturday at 11 a.m. (CST). The teams will be seeded 1-4 in each pool based on their record after round robin play.
The Lady Cajuns of Louisiana will face Long Beach State for the first time in the KIA Klassic and it will be the first meeting between the two teams since March 3, 1996 when they met at the NFCA Leadoff Classic in Columbus, Ga. The Lady Cajuns won that game 4-1. in the only other meeting between the two teams.
Louisiana will face Arizona in the KIA Klassic for the third straight season. The two teams have split a pair of meetings in the tournament with Louisiana claiming a 4-3 win in the 2001 event — a win which handed the eventual national champion its first loss of the season.
UA got the better of Louisiana in last season’s tournament meeting claiming a 1-0 win on March 16, 2002 in the opening round on bracket play.
This will be the 11th meeting all-time between the Lady Cajuns of Louisiana and Wildcats. UA swept a three-game set in Tucson, Ariz., last March 22-24. Louisiana is 1-4 versus Arizona under coach Stefni Lotief. Arizona has won the last four outings between the two teams.
The Lady Cajuns and Lady Seminoles of Florida State are meeting for the 16th time all-time and the second in the KIA Klassic. Louisiana defeated FSU 12-3 in the opening game of the 1994 KIA Klassic (called the PONY Invitational back then). The two teams met last in the 2000 NFCA Leadoff Classic in a game which the Lady Cajuns won 9-1 on March 5, 2000.
Louisiana will put its season-high seven-game winning streak on the line Thursday against LBSU. The Lady Cajuns have won 12 of their last 13 games and barring a two-out error in the bottom of the sixth against Tulsa at the ULM Mardi Gras Classic and a comeback by Notre Dame could be undefeated at this point of the season.
The Lady Cajuns have launched 33 home runs this season in 16 games and have hit 26 in the last nine outings. Each member of the starting lineup has at least one homer and seven of the nine starters have hit at least three home runs.
True freshman Danyele Gomez leads the team with a .408 clip and has seven home runs and 21 RBI to her credit. The Metairie native has hit four home runs and driven in 12 runs in the last four games. She leads all Lady Cajuns with 20 hits — half of which have been for extra bases (7 HR, 3 2B). Gomez’s .898 slugging percentage is tops on the team as well.
Senior third baseman Becky McMurtry is slowly returning to the form which made her an All-American last season. The Lady Cajuns two-hole hitter has seen her batting average climb to .372 and she is coming off of a nine-game home stand in which she belted five home runs and hit .455.
McMurtry has been a well disciplined hitter this season, drawing 11 walks to just three strikeouts. Her on-base percentage is a team-best .534.
In the pitching circle the Lady Cajuns are led by sophomore Brooke Mitchell, who has tossed two no-hitters this season and is limiting the opposition to a .122 batting average. She leads the team with 74 strikeouts in 51 2/3 innings of work. Mitchell has allowed just one hit in her last 11 innings in the circle and has surrendered just 21 hits this season.
Louisiana is outscoring its opponents 105-27 and is averaging 6.5 runs per outing. Louisiana has been able to jump out quickly on teams this season and has outscored its opponents 57-10 in the first three innings. The Lady Cajuns have scored 9 runs in the first inning in the last four games.
The Lady Cajuns have hit at least three home runs in one game seven times this season and have registered 11 hits four different times.
Louisiana has taken advantage of a balanced offensive attack as well. Six players have tallied double digit hits and five have double digits in the RBI department.
The KIA Klassic will be the Lady Cajuns final action on the diamond until a single game with Alabama on Thursday, March 27 at 7 p.m. at Lady Cajun Park.-->
<blockquote><p align=justify>FULLERTON, Calif. — Senior Becky McMurtry hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the fifth inning to help propel Louisiana to a 3-0 win over No. 16 Florida State Friday in the final game of pool play for both teams in the 2003 KIA Klassic hosted by Cal State Fullerton.
Later Friday, Oklahoma’s Erin Evans hit a bloop single to left field in the bottom of the sixth to break up Brooke Mitchell’s no-hitter.
Evans then stole second, advanced to third on a passed ball and scored on a Leah Gulla sacrifice fly as sixth-ranked Oklahoma (24-3) escaped with a narrow 1-0 win over the Cajuns (15-5).
The loss in the first game of bracket play drops Louisiana into the consolation bracket at 3 p.m. (CST) today against the loser of Hawaii and Fresno State’s bracket game. It will be the Lady Cajuns’ final game in the tournament.
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OU advances in championship bracket play to face the FSU-Hawaii winner.
McMurtry’s home run ended a scoreless duel in the first game between Lady Cajuns starter Michael Parrott and FSU starter Casey Hunter, who had kept the runs off the scoreboard for the first 4 1/2 innings of play and had stranded 13 runners combined.
Jill Robertson led off Louisiana's half of the fifth with a leadoff walk — her second of three walks in the ball game. McMurtry stepped up to the plate and lifted a line drive home run over the right center field wall for the game-winning runs and a 2-0 lead.
It was McMurtry’s sixth home run of the season and increased her season RBI total to 16.
After McMurtry’s game-winning shot, center fielder Tiffany Grayson drew a walk and moved to second when freshman right fielder Danyele Gomez reached on a fielding error.
Two batters later, freshman second baseman Brittany Bryant singled to center field to score Grayson from second and push the lead to 3-0.
Mitchell looked impressive in the circle against the Sooners, carrying the no-hit bid into the sixth inning as only three baserunners took the paths for OU.
The Sooners scored the decisive run in the bottom of the sixth on Evans leadoff single. She then advanced to second and moved to third base on a passed ball.
Mitchell got pinch hitter Katie Overton to strike out swinging for the first out of the inning. The Lady Cajuns had a chance to record the second out, but an error put runners on the corners and Gulla followed with her high fly.
Bryant booted a grounder from Kelli Braitsch and the Sooners had runners on the corner with one out instead of two.
Gulla then followed with a high, towering sacrifice fly to deep left field to score Evans with the game-winning run.
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<blockquote><p align=justify> LAFAYETTE — Louisiana softball coach Stefni Lotief announced Friday that a doubleheader with Louisiana Tech on Monday has been added to the team’s schedule.
The Lady Cajuns (15-5) will travel to Ruston on Monday for a 4 p.m. doubleheader with the Lady Techsters at the Lady Techsters Softball Complex located on the La. Tech campus.
It will be the Lady Cajuns first action in 10 days. They have been off since Friday, March 14 following the KIA Klassic.
Following Monday’s games, Louisiana will return home to begin a 16-game homestand. The stretch, which will conclude the Lady Cajuns 2003 home schedule and run through April 17, begins on Thursday, March 27 at 7 p.m. in a single game against SEC-member Alabama. <center><p><a href="http://www.theadvertiser.com/sports/html/0CF4293B-4CDD-4A3C-AA7A-50A84737C31A.shtml">The rest of the story</a>
<blockquote><p align=justify>LAFAYETTE — The 25th-ranked Louisiana Lady Cajuns will open their season-long 16-game homestand today at Lady Cajun Park in a 7 p.m. single-game softball showdown against No. 16 Alabama.
The game will be carried live on SportsRadio ESPN 1420-KPEL AM in the La. area. Jay Walker and Steve Peloquin will call of the action live from Lady Cajun Park beginning at 6:45 p.m.
The Lady Cajuns (15-5) enter the game fresh off of their first ranking of the 2003 season and will be playing their first contest in 13 days.
Louisiana last played on Friday, March 14 at the KIA Klassic against then-No. 6 Oklahoma, falling 1-0 on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the sixth.
The Lady Cajuns are 10-1 at home this season, including 7 straight, and have taken 110 of the last 122 dating back to 1999. The Cajuns are 58-8 (.879) at home under coach Stefni Lotief.
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Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@lafayette.gannett.com <!--
Louisiana has lost three of its last four tilts, but two of those three were to Top 10 teams (No. 2 Arizona and No. 6 Oklahoma) and the third loss came on a two-out rally by Long Beach State in the bottom of the seventh.
Alabama (25-10) will bring a season-high six-game winning streak into the game and is coming off of a weekend SEC sweep of Kentucky. The Tide has won 11 of its last 12 outings since a season-high four-game losing streak Feb. 28-March 2 in the Crimson Classic.
The Crimson Tide is coached by former Cajuns assistant coach Pat Murphy (1990-94) and former All-American Alyson Habetz (1990-95) — both in their fifth season with the Crimson Tide softball program.
This will be the second meeting all-time between the two teams and first since Feb. 22, 1997 when the two squads met in the 11th Annual Louisiana Classics. Louisiana won 3-0 as then-senior pitcher Jennifer Clendenin tossed a complete-game two-hit shutout of the Tide.
Louisiana is 1-2 against ranked opponents this season and ended a 9-game losing streak to ranked teams with a 3-0 win over then-No.16 Florida State at the KIA Klassic. Alabama is the first ranked team to visit Lady Cajun Park since the 2001 season when Louisiana State faced the Cajuns in an April 18 twinbill.
GAME NOTE — Scott native Lacy Prejean, a former Carencro High star, is a senior catcher for the Tide and is currently hitting .257 with four home runs, four doubles and 18 RBI. She began the season on an eight-game hitting streak.
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Louisiana vs Alabama
I am just out of radio range, and can't hook up on the internet.
What I think I heard is the score in the top of the 5th is . . .
Louisiana 1
Alabama 0
<blockquote><p align=justify>LAFAYETTE — Hits and runs were at a premium Thursday night at Lady Cajun Park, and Brooke Mitchell made sure Louisiana didn't need much of either one.
Mitchell limited No. 16 Alabama to one hit and struck out seven as the Lady Cajuns scored a 2-0 victory to improve to 16-5 on the season.
The Crimson Tide, which used three pitchers in anticipation of its weekend series at SEC rival LSU, dropped to 25-11 despite allowing just four hits by the home team.
“I think our kids looked at it as a great opportunity at home,” coach Stefni Lotief said of her No. 25 Lady Cajuns. “They wanted to go out and have fun. They were loose, and I knew they were going to play every pitch.
“Brooke was just phenomenal. She and (catcher) Joy (Webre) work so well together. She was in total control of the game.”
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Bruce Brown
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The Tide got as far as second base only once, when leadoff hitter Jackie Wilkins walked to begin the game and stole second base. After a strikeout, Mitchell also walked Jackie McClain.
But third baseman Becky McMurtry fielded a Stephanie Van Brakle grounder, stepped on third to force Wilkins and threw to first for the inning-ending double play.
After that, Alabama's Jennifer Reach beat out an infield single in the fifth for the only hit by the visitors.
“The team really played great defense behind Brooke,” Lotief said. “I think that double play in the first set the tone.”
“It's awesome when you get defensive help like that,” Mitchell said. “I was struggling early, but they had my back every time. I knew that would continue throughout the game.”
Mitchell, who improved to 7-4, pitches some of her best games against highly-ranked foes.
“I try not to,” she said. “I try to take the same approach every game. I knew their No. 3 hitter (McClain) could really hit. I wanted to keep the ball low and change speeds a lot.”
The game ended with a line drive out to Cajun shortstop Jill Robertson by Carencro High product Lacy Prejean of Bama, as Mitchell bore down to close it out.
“I was trying to stay focused,” Mitchell said. “I didn't want to get too excited.”
That was left to the season-high 728 fans on hand.
As well as Mitchell pitched, the Cajuns still needed runs, and they got one each in the second and sixth innings.
Webre had a one-out infield single against Van Brakle in the second, gained two bases on a pair of wild pitches, and scored on a double to center field by freshman Lauren Castle.
That would probably have been enough for Mitchell, but the Cajuns got an insurance run just the same.
McMurtry ripped a leadoff double up the left field line off Erin Wright and yielded to pinch runner Tiffany Hebert. Tiffany Grayson walked and Danyele Gomez moved Hebert up with a sinking fly ball to right field.
Webre plated Hebert with a double to left center to end the scoring.
The Cajuns, who host Prairie View A&M today in an 11 a.m. doubleheader, have had trouble getting games in lately.
“We've had trouble with the weather,” Lotief said, “and our conference only has five teams. We get a late (conference) start. I hope the Sun Belt can continue to grow and we can have more opportunities on weekends.”
When the Lady Cajuns (11-1 at home) do get the chance to play, they usually know what to do.
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