Cajuns Women lose to USA in game 2. Lady Cajuns WIN game 3

[NewsCopy]

  MOBILE, Ala.-Louisiana?s Ragin? Cajuns softball team dropped a pair of Sun Belt Conference games as they fell by a score of 3-1 to South Alabama in both games of a doubleheader on Friday night.

The Cajuns out-hit the Jaguars 13-to-9 on the night, but Louisiana was hampered by their inability to get a timely hit. UL left a total of 14 runners left on base including 11 base runners in scoring position.

Donna Bourgeois took both losses on the night. On the day, she pitched 9.0 innings, scattering eight hits. Bourgeois allowed six runs in the two games (four earned runs). She struck out 12 batters, including a 10-strikeout performance in game one and surrendered four walks.

Bourgeois was relieved in game two by Brittany Cuevas. The junior pitched 3.0 shutout innings allowing just one hit. Cuevas struck out eight of the 11 batters she faced on the night.

Offensively, the Cajuns were led by Kelly Cormier, Christi Orgeron, Karli Hubbard and Vallie Gaspard.

Cormier paced the Cajuns with three hits on the day, including a double. Orgeron had a pair of extra base hits on the day as she hit her first collegiate home run and added her eighth double of the season. Hubbard and Gaspard each had a pair of base hits, while Gaspard added a base on balls.

GAME 2 RECAP
Game two for the Ragin? Cajuns was a bit of déjà vu. Louisiana fell in the night cap by a score of 3-1, just like in game one.

Bourgeois once again took the loss for the Cajuns. She gave way to Cuevas in the fourth inning and Cuevas worked 3.0 scoreless innings fanning eight of the 11 batters she faced on the night. She fanned the first two batters she faced before allowing a hit and hitting a batter, but followed with three consecutive strikeouts. Cuevas retired the final seven batters in order, striking out six.

Cormier was the only Cajuns with multiple hits in the game as she finished game two 2-for-3 with a double UL?s lone RBI.

South Alabama was the first to score in game two. In the first inning, the hosts led off the inning with back-to-back base hits. A pop up to short recorded the first out, but a single through the right side of the infield plated the first run of the game. With runners on the corners and one out, Lana Bowers quickly threw to third base and picked off the lead runner for the second out of the inning. Bourgeois fanned the next batter to get out of the inning, but the Cajuns found themselves on the wrong side of a 1-0 score after one inning.

Louisiana scored a run in the top of the first inning to tie the game at 1-1. With one out, Bowers singled to center field to get things started for the Ragin? Cajuns. Bowers moved to second base on a passed ball. Cormier doubled over the left fielder?s head, scoring Bowers from second and knotting the score.

The Jaguars added a pair of unearned runs in the bottom of the second inning. South Alabama led off the inning with a single and batter hit by a pitch. A fielding error by the Cajuns allowed the first run of the inning and left USA with a pair of runners on base. A second error in the inning plated the second run and gave South Alabama a 3-1 advantage after two innings of play.

The Cajuns threatened to chip away at the USA lead in the top of the fourth inning. Gabriele Bridges doubled to left center field to begin the inning. With a runner on second and no outs, the Ragin? Cajuns hit back to back fly balls to the shallow part of the outfield to prevent Bridges from advancing. Bridges stole third to move just 60-feet away from home, but a strikeout ended the inning and the UL threat.

For the second inning in a row, the Ragin? Cajuns had a runner in scoring position with less than two outs and failed to score a run. Gaspard led off the inning with an infield single. Gaspard moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Hubbard. With Gaspard on second and one out, the Cajuns? next two batters struck out and flied out to end the inning, leaving the runner stranded.

For the third consecutive inning, Louisiana got the leadoff batter on base. Codi Runyan started the inning off with a single through the left side. Courtney Trahan entered the game to run for Runyan. Following back-to-back strikeouts by UL, Cormier singled to short and advanced to second on a throwing error by South Alabama. Trahan managed to advance to third on the play, but neither runner would come around to score as a fly ball to straight away center field ended the inning and the Louisiana threat.

The Cajuns went down in order in the final inning taking their second 3-1 loss of the day.

The Ragin? Cajuns and Jaguars will conclude the three-game series on Saturday at 12:00 p.m. at Jaguar Field.

UL Press

[wcd35]

Ladies won game 3 thankfully, 3-0. I'm not starting a new thread. Glad to see Cuevas getting that start and win today. She needs to keep showing she wants the ball.

[ulforlife]

if UL had been playing Cuevas all year when needed they would have half the losses

rebuilding year? should still be able to win only giving up 3 runs

[wcd35]

_ if UL had been playing Cuevas all year when needed they would have half the losses

rebuilding year? should still be able to win only giving up 3 runs _

We discussed this at length yesterday. Cuevas has refused the ball at times. She is not the pitcher that the other 2 are.

Fielding has lost us nearly all of our games.

[Zeebart21]

_ We discussed this at length yesterday. Cuevas has refused the ball at times. She is not the pitcher that the other 2 are.
Fielding has lost us nearly all of our games. _

hhhmmmmmm.....could there be some dissention amongst the ranks????

Z

[CajunCharlie]

_ hhhmmmmmm.....could there be some dissention amongst the ranks????

Z _

Hopefully not!! The last time I saw Cuevas pitch this season she didn't look as though she was pitching with confidence. Just my personal opinion, but I believe at times that injury, which requires her to wear the face mask, weighs heavily on her confidence.

The ladies are struggling with fielding errors and getting runners home. The "slappers" are setting the "table", but no one seems to be able to provide the oomph to clear the table.

[lcitsh]

The ladies are struggling with fielding errors and getting runners home. The "slappers" are setting the "table", but no one seems to be able to provide the oomph to clear the table.

Exactly right. We all knew it would be virtually impossible to replace Vanessa & Holly, both high impact players, but hoped that Melissa, Gabby & Lana would elevate their games enough to take up some of the slack. Back injuries, especially ones requiring surgery, even in young, healthy athletes, are tough to recover from, so it's no surprise that Codi has not fully returned to form. Remember, she has not been at full playing strength in over two and a half years.

The problem the ladies are facing now is time. They are running out of time to impress the selection committee enough to give them a favorable seed and location for post season play. If they continue in this vein, they may put themselves in a position where they have to win the conference tournment to get into the NCAA tournament. With this weekend's losses, they no longer have control of being the #1 seed in the conference tournament. Western Kentucky now has that luxury. And they have 9 of their last 12 conference games @ home. 3 of our 4 conference series are on the road, with the home series against Troy.
Cajuns have an uphill climb. It's time to focus on the task @ hand and take care of business. We'll see how much mettle these young ladies have.

[Bunch24]

_ if UL had been playing Cuevas all year when needed they would have half the losses

rebuilding year? should still be able to win only giving up 3 runs _

And exactly how does Cuevas help them score more than one run a game? Cuevas would have lost those 1-0 games just like Brignac and Bourgeois.

Sorry, but pitching is DEFINITELY not the problem right now. If I had to make a list of 100 things that are "problem areas" pitching would be No. 100 on my list, IMHO.

The team ERA is 0.95. They're averaging 1.3 strikeouts per inning. Opponents are hitting .165 against Cajun pitching. Those numbers are the numbers of a top 10 softball team. Hell, there are top 10 teams who would love to have those numbers.

[ulforlife]

_ And exactly how does Cuevas help them score more than one run a game? Cuevas would have lost those 1-0 games just like Brignac and Bourgeois.

Sorry, but pitching is DEFINITELY not the problem right now. If I had to make a list of 100 things that are "problem areas" pitching would be No. 100 on my list, IMHO.

The team ERA is 0.95. They're averaging 1.3 strikeouts per inning. Opponents are hitting .165 against Cajun pitching. Those numbers are the numbers of a top 10 softball team. Hell, there are top 10 teams who would love to have those numbers. _

I apologize if you misunderstood my statements. I just felt that had we been using Cuevas a little more we may have given ourselves a better shot to stay in games at times. However, my mention that we should still be able to win games where we give up 3 runs has nothing to do with pitching at all. I just mean that aside from pitching, the team should be scoring enough to be able to come away with a W even if they give up 3 runs. These are Sun Belt teams after all. It's not like we're in a pitchers duel with UCLA when we lose these 1-0 games

it is a rebuilding year. we will be strong again at pitching next year we just need the bats. i think it will come