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A season-high strikeout performance from Summer Ellyson and a pair timely run-producing hits led No. 14 Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns Softball to an 8-3 win over Sam Houston on Tuesday that extended the team's season-best winning streak to 13 games.
Ellyson recorded a strikeout in every inning on the way to posting 13 in the contest which marked her first double-digit effort of the season and highest tally since the 2019 NCAA Oxford Regional opening game.
Justice Milz ended a scoreless duel in the third inning by powering a three-run home run in her second opportunity of the game with a pair of runners on base.
Milz's blast was key to preventing the Bearkats from claiming any momentum despite the hosts scratching a pair of unearned runs in the bottom half of the frame, then drawing even in the fourth inning with a solo home run.
In the fifth inning Ciara Bryan led off with a double to set the stage for Kendall Talley to provide Louisiana (28-6) with the game-winning run. Talley's third hit of the night, an RBI single back up the middle, scored Bryan and reclaimed the lead for the Ragin' Cajuns at 4-3.
Separation from SHSU (8-21) came in the sixth inning when Bailey Curry led off with a pinch-hit single and Kaitlyn Alderink followed with a bunt single to send the Bearkats scrambling while three additional runs were tacked on to the advantage.
The Ragin' Cajuns moved past the halfway point of their 10-game Spring Break road trip as Tuesday's contest was the sixth out of 10 on the docket.
DIAMOND NOTES
Louisiana produced 11 hits in the game, marking the fifth time in six games on the current road trip the squad reached double figures.
Kendall Talley extended her career-best hitting streak to 12 games and posted her first three-hit game of the season (3-for-4, 2 RBI). It was Talley's first three-hit game since Feb. 14, 2020 vs. North Dakota.
During the 12-game hitting streak, Kendall Talley is batting a team-leading .529 (18-for-34) with 15 runs scored and eight RBI produced.
The leadoff double in the fifth inning allowed Ciara Bryan to keep alive her season-long streak of having reached base, now at 34 consecutive games. It's the longest such streak by a Ragin' Cajun since Kara Gremillion ended the 2017 season with a 47-game reached base streak.
Ciara Bryan moved her latest hitting streak to nine games placing her within one outing of a second double-digit hitting streak of the season. She had a career-best, 17-game hitting streak from Feb. 26-March 28.
During the 13-game winning streak the Ragin' Cajuns offense is batting .333, has outscored foes 97-13, and piled up 112 base hits of which 39 are for extra bases.
Summer Ellyson held the opposition to two earned runs or less for the seventh consecutive start – a streak that coincides with Louisiana's current winning streak. In that timeframe, Ellyson sports a 0.72 ERA and has yielded only four earned runs over 39 innings pitched.
Since the 13-game win streak began, with a win in the series finale at UT Arlington where no earned runs were allowed, Louisiana's pitching staff has surrendered only nine earned runs, allowed just 46 hits and held foes to a .156 average over the last 83 innings.
The Ragin' Cajuns and Bearkats met in Huntsville for only the second time in 31 all-time meetings and the first time since March 1982.
UP NEXT
No. 14 Louisiana ends its three-day stay in Texas with a single game at Houston (10-21) on Wednesday (April 7). The Ragin' Cajuns and Cougars matchup is now scheduled to begin at 5 p.m., an hour earlier than previously scheduled
