BATON ROUGE - In 2006, the Lady Cajuns scored two runs at Lady Tiger Park in the first round of the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional to defeat NC State. In 2008, the No. 16 Cajuns had a bit of déjà vu, as they scored two runs in the opening round of the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional to defeat East Carolina, 2-1.

The Lady Cajuns (47-12) received a pair of RBI singles from Vanessa Soto to score Vallie Gaspard twice to account for their two runs.

As a team, the Cajuns collected seven hits, including Soto’s pair of base knocks.

In the circle, Louisiana received a one-hitter by freshman Donna Bourgeois. The rookie worked 7.0 innings allowing just one hit while fanning three batters. Her only blemish came when she struck a batter out on a pitch in the dirt. The runner came around to score on the only hit allowed by Bourgeois.

Bourgeois sat down seven in a row at point in the game and retired 13 of the last 14 batters to end the game.

East Carolina was the first team to score in the game, plating a runner in the first inning. After retiring the leadoff batter, Bourgeois fanned the next batter, but the pitch was low and got away from battery mate Lana Bowers (Crosby, Texas) allowing Christina Merrida to reach first base. A groundout moved the runner into scoring position. ECU’s Stacey Andrews singled through the left side of the infield allowing the speedy Merrida to score from second and give the Pirates a quick 1-0 lead. Bourgeois struck out the next batter to end the inning.

The Ragin’ Cajuns wasted little time in tying the score. In the bottom of the first inning, Gaspard started things off for UL with a bunt single. She moved to second base on a ground out by Karli Hubbard (Lafayette, La.). Soto, who made her return to Tiger Park, hit the first pitch she saw for a single up the middle. Gaspard scored easily from second base to knot the score at 1-1.

The fifth inning was almost a mirror image of the first inning for UL. Gaspard reached second on a two-base error by the Pirates. Soto followed with a single to score the speedy Gaspard from second to give UL a 2-1 advantage after five complete.

From there, it was all defense as neither team managed to plate any runners. Bourgeois retired the final six batters in order to secure the victory for the Cajuns.

The Ragin’ Cajuns will continue play at the 2008 NCAA Baton Rouge Regional on Saturday afternoon as they take on the winner of Louisiana State and Mississippi Valley State at 1:00 p.m. at Tiger Park.

RaginCajuns.com

Chris Whitehead