The Book: 2003 Softball

[CajunCall]

Geaux Lady Cajuns

[CDeb]

It wasn't but five or six years ago that Nicholls was routinely ranked and was one of our tougher series every year. How times have changed!

[sandra]

Originally posted by CDeb
It wasn't but five or six years ago that Nicholls was routinely ranked and was one of our tougher series every year. How times have changed!

Without Stephni praytell where we would be. On another note, why can't I catch the Lady Cajuns on the web?

[Cajun Express]

Originally posted by sandra
Without Stephni praytell where we would be. On another note, why can't I catch the Lady Cajuns on the web?

You can only catch them when they are on KPEL just like any of our teams.

[Turbine]

Originally posted by sandra
...why can't I catch the Lady Cajuns on the web?

Try again it's working for me.

[Turbine]

LAdy Cajuns WIN (g1) 4-1

[Turbine]

LAdy Cajuns WIN (G2) 5-0
S W E E P

[NewsCopy]

LOUISIANA La. — Danyele Gomez got it started with her school record-tying 16th home run of the season, and Crystal George ended it with another long distance shot.

Their power hitting and the capable pitching of Afton Thoms carried Louisiana to a 5-inning, 8-0 victory over Texas-San Antonio in the regular season home finale Thursday night before 473 fans at Lady Cajun Park.

The Lady Cajuns improved to 31-5 overall with their 16th consecutive victory and 23rd straight win at home, perfect preparation for a four-game weekend series at Sun Belt Conference rival Florida International.

The rest of the story

South Louisiana Publishing
Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com

[NewsCopy]

No.20 Louisiana extends season-high win streak to 18 games,
remains unbeaten in Sun Belt play

MIAMI - Senior All-American third baseman Becky McMutry drove in four runs and Crystal George hit a three-run home run as the 20th-ranked Louisiana softball team claimed a 5-3, 4-1 doubleheader sweep of Sun Belt Conference rival Florida International here Saturday afternoon at University Park.

McMurtry provided the game-winning RBIs in both ends of the doubleheader as the LAdy Cajuns (33-5, 10-0 Sun Belt) extended their season-high winning streak to 18 games and Sun Belt win streak to 24 games.

Louisiana swept its 15th straight doubleheader dating back to last season and moved within two wins of claiming at least a share of its third consecutive Sun Belt regular season championship.

Louisiana was locked in a tight battle with FIU (28-22, 4-2 Sun Belt) in the fifth inning of game one before McMurtry provided the heroics that propelled the Cajuns to victory.

With the bases loaded and no outs, McMurtry greeted Golden Panthers reliever Nicole Barrett with a single through the right side of the infield between FIU second baseman Lindsey Tippings and first baseman Cynthia Turek to score Summar Lapeyrouse and Natalie Hamby with the go-ahead runs and a 5-3 lead.

In game two, McMurtry ended a pitcher's duel between Cajuns starter Afton Thoms and FIU starter Amanda Nealer with a two-out, two-RBI double that gave the Cajuns a 2-0 lead en route to a 4-1 win.

The North Platte, Neb., native ended the day 3-for-6 with four RBI to pace the Cajuns offense. She raised her season batting average to .443 with Saturday's performance.

After a scoreless first inning, George hit her fifth home run of the season - a three-run shot that glanced over the top of the outfield fence in left center field for a 3-0 lead in the top of the second.

George's home run completed the Cajuns two-out rally in the inning which began with FIU starter Kendra Laminack throwing eight consecutive balls to issue walks to Lauren Castle and Summar Lapeyrouse.

George worked a full count off of Laminack and after fouling off several pitches lifted a high-fly ball over the outfield fence for the early lead.

FIU would battle back in the third and fourth innings with three runs off of Cajuns starter Brooke Mitchell.

The Golden Panthers struck for two runs in the third inning on a sacrifice fly by Turek and an RBI single up the middle of the infield by designated player Kristen Perry to trim the Cajuns lead to 3-2.

FIU got even in the fourth with an RBI single from third baseman Jennifer Owens that scored Nicole Dubovik who had doubled earlier in the inning.

McMurtry answered the call for the Cajuns in the fifth inning and Mitchell went on to shut down the Panthers the rest of the way as the Cajuns held on for the 5-3 victory.

FIU would only get one more hit in the final three innings after notching six in the first four.

Mitchell picked up the win for the Lady Cajuns and upped her season record to 15-4 and extended her personal winning streak to nine games. She went the distance striking out four, walking five and hitting two batters.

In all, Mitchell ended the game throwing 147 pitches to the 34 batters she faced.

The Cajuns staff ace surrendered the most hits in a game since she allowed eight hits to Notre Dame on Feb. 28 in an 8-5 loss.

Laminack suffered the loss for FIU and fell to 9-9 on the season. She was charged with all five runs and allowed just two hits while striking out four.

Barrett threw three innings in relief allowing three hits - one of which was the single to McMurtry in the fifth which clinched the win for Louisiana.

"Crystal's home run gave us the momentum early in game one," head coach Stefni Lotief said. "Give them (FIU) credit, they have an excellent ball club and answered back to tie the game.

"We fought through the adversity and responded by recapturing the momentum back in the fifth inning," Lotief said.

In game two, the Cajuns jumped on FIU ace Amanda Nealer for eight hits and four runs to post the 4-1 win.

Redshirt freshman Afton Thoms was stellar in the circle for the Cajuns as she allowed just three hits and threw a complete game.

"Afton just shut them down" Lotief said. "She went out there and challenged them and we supported her with stellar defense."

Nealer cruised through the first two innings retiring the Cajuns in order each time. However, her grip on the game was loosened in the third as Louisiana exploded for three runs on four hits.

Freshman Leslie Pierce led off the inning with a single to left center. She was moved over to second on a grounder to second by Lapeyrouse.

After a Brittany Bryant pop up, Jill Robertson singled singled through the left side of the infield to advance pinch runner Rachel Reese over to third base.

Robertson later stole second base to set up McMurtry's RBI double and a 2-0 lead. Joy Webre extended the lead to 3-0 with a single to the left field gap that scored McMurtry.

Louisiana extended its lead to 4-0 in the fifth inning when Crystal George lifted a bases-loaded single into shallow center field that scored Natalie Hamby and chase Nealer from the game in favor of Barrett.

FIU notched its only run of the game when Marleah Stapf took the first pitch of the bottom of the fifth from Thoms and sent it over the left field fence.

Thoms was credited with the win for the Cajuns as she improved to 10-1 while Nealer took the loss for the Golden Panthers and dropped to 16-7.

Other Cajuns notables Saturday included sophomore Tiffany Hebert collecting her first career triple in the sixth inning of game one and then Hamby ripped a triple of her own over a drawn in outfield in the sixth inning of game two but was forced out at home when she attempted to stretch it into a in-the-park home run.

"It was good to see some of the other players step up today," Loteif said. "We've been fighting injuries and have several starters out today.


"That's part of the plan we worked on all year," Lotief added. "We've tried to get at bats for everyone in case we ever ran into a situation where injuries began to take its toll. Today that strategy played dividends."

With the sweep, the Cajuns extended their win streak over the Golden
Panthers to nine games.

LOUISIANA SI

[NewsCopy]

The two teams will conclude the four-game series Sunday with a 10 a.m. (CST) doubleheader. Louisiana will be going for its first four-game sweep of FIU in Miami and second in as many years.

[NewsCopy]

(Game 1)
Louisiana 5, Fla. International 3 (Apr 19, 2003 at Miami, Fla.)

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Louisiana. 030 020 0 - 5 5 2 (32-5, 9-0 SUN BELT)
Fla. International.. 002 100 0 - 3 7 0 (28-21, 4-1 SUN BELT)

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Pitchers: Louisiana - Mitchell.
Fla. International - Laminack; Barrett(5).
Win-Mitchell(15-4)
Loss-Laminack(9-9) T-2:35 A-0
HR UL - George (5).
Laminack faced 3 batters in the 5th.

(Game 2)
Louisiana 4, Fla. International 1 (Apr 19, 2003 at Miami, Fla.)

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Louisiana. 003 010 0 - 4 10 1 (33-5, 10-0 SUN BELT)
Fla. International.. 000 010 0 - 1 3 0 (28-22, 4-2 SUN BELT)

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Pitchers: Louisiana - Thoms.
Fla. International - Nealer; Barrett(5).
Win-Thoms(10-1)
Loss-Nealer(16-7)
T-1:51 A-194
HR FIU - Stapf (6).

[NewsCopy]

NATCHITOCHES — Rocked back on its heels by a rare doubleheader loss last weekend in Sun Belt Conference play, Louisiana’s Lady Cajun softball team looks to rebound today in a 5 p.m. doubleheader at Northwestern State.

Coach Stefni Lotief’s squad, which split four games Saturday and Sunday at Florida International, is 33-7 overall but coming off a pair of Sunday defeats.

The Lady Cajuns have swept 40 of 47 doubleheaders under Lotief and had a streak of 15 straight sweeps snapped at FIU. In addition, Louisiana had won 18 straight games prior to falling to the Panthers.

Northwestern State carried a 23-28 record into a Wednesday doubleheader against Grambling State, having won 21 of 31 since opening the campaign 2-18 under first-year head coach Eileen Schmidt.

One of those early defeats was a 3-2 loss to the Lady Cajuns on March 1 in the Louisiana Classics at Lady Cajun Park, a win that boosted Louisiana’s all-time advantage against the Demons to 56-13.

The Lady Cajuns are 12-0 against softball teams from the state of Louisiana this season, 38-8 in three years under Lotief and 399-120 all-time.

The rest of the story

[NewsCopy]

CAJUNS AMONG THE TOP IN THE NATION IN NCAA STATS

21st-ranked Ragin' Cajuns softball team is nation's top run producer, freshman Danyele Gomez is 3rd in home runs per game

LOUISIANA - La. - One glance at the current NCAA softball statistics, released Wednesday, and one will find several appearances by the 21st-ranked Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns softball team and its members.

Louisiana freshman outfielder and All-American candidate Danyele Gomez is third in the nation for home runs per game with an average of 0.40 per game.

The Metairie native has hit 16 home runs this season - a total which set a new school freshman record and is currently tied for the all-time single-season lead. Her home run total is also third-best among all Division I players.

As a team, No. 21 Louisiana leads the NCAA Division I in runs scored per game with 260 runs through 40 games - an average of 6.5 per game.

This is the second straight week that the Lady Cajuns of Louisiana lead the nation in runs per game. Last week, the Cajuns ranked first with an average of 7.06 runs per contest.

In other individual statistics of notoriety, Gomez is fifth in the nation for runs batted in per game. She leads all Cajuns and the Sun Belt with 47 RBI through 40 games for an average of 1.18 per game.

Senior All-American Becky McMurtry is 29th in the nation for batting average. She is hitting .422 and is the Cajuns leading hitter. Last week, McMurtry checked in at No. 13 with a .453 average.

McMurtry is also among the nation's best for doubles per game with 0.35 per game and 14 total - ranking her 16th in the nation.

In the pitching circle, sophomore ace Brooke Mitchell is in the Top 25 for earned run average. Mitchell leads the Louisiana softball staff with a 0.94 ERA which ranks her 21st in the country.

Mitchell's 9.3 strikeouts per seven innings has her 14th in the NCAA stats. Last week against Nicholls State she notched her 300th career strikeout with the fourth one of the first game against the Colonels.

She currently has 167 strikeouts this season which is three more than she had all of last season.

As a team, the Lady Cajuns vaunted offense ranks 19th in the nation for batting average. The Cajuns are hitting .297 as a collective unit, which is down from last week's .306 average which had them in the Top 10.

Pitching-wise, Louisiana's staff ERA of 1.23 puts it 13th in the nation. The Lady Cajuns earned run average as a team ranks higher than LSU which is 16th at 1.29.

The Lady Cajuns top-notch defense finds itself in elite company as well. Louisiana's .974 fielding percentage is good for 11th best in the country. The Lady Cajuns 27 total errors are the fourth-fewest among teams ranked in the NCAA's Top 30.

Last but not least, Louisiana-Lafayette's winning percentage of .825 is seventh-best in the nation. Before Sunday's two losses to FIU the Lady Cajuns had a .868 which was fourth in the nation at the time.

Louisiana returns to action on Thursday, April 24 in a 5 p.m. doubleheader against in-state rival Northwestern State in Natchitoches at the Demon Softball Complex.

LOUISIANA SI

[NewsCopy]

Individual Stats

Batting Average
29. Becky McMurtry .422

Home Runs Per Game
3. Danyele Gomez 0.40

Runs Batted In Per Game
5. Danyele Gomez 1.18

Doubles Per Game
16. Becky McMurtry 0.35

Earned Run Average
21. Brooke Mitchell 0.94

Strikeouts Per Seven Innings
14. Brooke Mitchell 9.3

[NewsCopy]

Team Stats

Batting Average
19. Louisiana .297

Earned Run Average
13. Louisiana 1.23

Fielding Percentage
11. Louisiana .974

Scoring
1. Louisiana 6.5 rpg

WL Percentage
7. Louisiana .825