Explosive Cajuns roll over UNT on road

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It's easy for pitchers and defenders to lose focus with a double-digit lead. It's probably tougher when that lead comes before you throw your first pitch or field your first ground ball. That's what happened to the University of Louisiana softball team Sunday in the finale of its Sun Belt Conference weekend series against host North Texas. The Cajuns pushed across 12 runs in the top of the first inning, and coasted home from there with a 21-9 five-inning run-rule victory over the Mean Green. UL pitchers Ashley Kirchberg and Krystal Lewallen uncharacteristically gave up nine hits and eight earned runs to the Mean Green, after each had recorded shutout efforts in Saturday's doubleheader sweep - Kirchberg's a no-hitter. But who could have blamed them for having a little bit of a letdown, after the 13th-ranked Cajuns (39-8, 7-2 Sun Belt) sent 17 batters to the plate against three UNT pitchers in the first inning at UNT's Denia Park. In all, the Cajuns finished with 17 hits, four of them home runs including a pair by Ashley Evans and one each from Brittany Bryant and Lacey Bertucci. Those shots put UL at 88 team homers in 47 games this season, tying the school record with eight regular-season games and postseason play remaining. Sunday's easy win locked up UL's first league sweep of the year and kept the Cajuns in first place in the league race with two weekends remaining. In the process, UL also scored its most runs ever in a Sun Belt game and tallied the most ever by a North Texas (18-30, 1-8) opponent. The rest of the story Dan McDonald dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com

[J-Town Cajun]

Does anyone know what happened to Holly Tankersley. I have not heard her name in a while and noticed she has played in 9 less games this year than the rest of the starters.

[LuLu]

Does anyone know what happened to Holly Tankersley. I have not heard her name in a while and noticed she has played in 9 less games this year than the rest of the starters.

Holly has been out with abscesses in her mouth. She had five. Must have been pretty sick! Tara Hamilton has picked up the slack and is doing great.

[Turbine]

Holly has been out with abscesses in her mouth. She had five. Must have been pretty sick! Tara Hamilton has picked up the slack and is doing great.

I heard it was caused by impacted wisdom teeth that have since been operated on.

I have to imagine this was bothering her to some great degree for a while and if she had been 100% all year, UL might have 4 batters ranked nationally in home runs.

[DeadRed]

I heard it was caused by impacted wisdom teeth that have since been operated on.

I have to imagine this was bothering her to some great degree for a while and if she had been 100% all year, UL might have 4 batters ranked nationally in home runs.

She has always had some problems with her teeth. In fact, one of her front teeth actually fell out last fall after she returned to UL. Don't know if its the same tooth that is causing all the problems now.