UL Cajun Women Lose to Lady Braves of Alcorn State
Alcorn State surprised the 14th-ranked Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns softball team tallying a 5-4 victory here Friday evening at the Northwestern State Invitational.
The Ragin’ Cajuns (14-2) were held to only one hit through the first six innings before mounting a rally in the bottom of the seventh inning that fell short when Codi Runyan was thrown out from center field attempting to score the tying run.
The loss snapped UL’s seven-game winning streak and evened the team’s tournament record at 1-1.
Alcorn jumped in front in the third inning using a two-out rally to take a 2-0 lead. A two-out walk issued to Melissa Mason was followed by three consecutive hits that scored runs.
The Ragin’ Cajuns got one of the runs back in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Lacey Bertucci drew a leadoff walk then Holly Tankersley and Melissa Verde were hit by a pitch from Alcorn pitcher Corina Pendleton to load the bases.
A one-out sacrifice fly to left field off the bat of Jessica Lemoine scored pinch runner Courtney Trahan cutting the Braves’ lead to 2-1.
Another two-out rally in the top of the fifth inning plated three more runs for Alcorn State increasing the lead to 5-1.
A walk followed by back-to-back singles plated the Braves’ third run. Then a throwing error allowed the Braves to add two more unearned runs which gave them enough runs to hold on to the victory in the seventh inning.
The Cajuns quickly loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Karli Hubbard reached on the fielding error by Alcorn first baseman Melinda Ellis. Vallie Gaspard then walked moving Hubbard into scoring position. Meagan Godwin then singled down the left field line scoring Hubbard making it 5-2.
Gaspard and Godwin moved up on a passed ball and then Codi Runyan drew a walk to load the bases still with no outs.
After Bertucci fouled out for the first out of the inning, Tankersley singled back up the middle plating Gaspard and Godwin closing the deficit to 5-4. Runyan advanced to third base on the Tankersley base hit .
Melissa Verde worked the count full before lofting a fly ball into shallow center field. Runyan attempted to tag up for the chance to tie the game, but the throw from Alcorn center fielder Tonya Nelms was on target to nail down Runyan and complete the double play to end the contest.
Tankersley took the loss for the Ragin’ Cajuns. She surrendered five runs (three earned) while allowing five hits over five innings. The loss overshadowed the fact that she tied her career-high for strikeouts with 11.
Shari Sigur entered in relief in the sixth inning and tossed two innings of shutout softball. She allowed two hits and only faced one batter over the minimum.
The Ragin’ Cajuns will continue play in the Northwestern State Invitational on Saturday meeting Colgate at 9 a.m., at the Demon Softball Complex. Then at 11:30 a.m., the Cajuns move to Natchitoches Central High School for a meeting with Tennessee-Martin to complete round robin play.
LOUISIANA SI
Quote
Re: Opponent: NSU softball will host NSU Invitational beginning Today
Originally Posted by LuLu
