LOUISIANA La. — Brooke Mitchell seems to get better by the day.

Mitchell pitched six innings of suffocating relief, striking out 15 of 18 batters she faced, and Danyele Gomez lifted a solo home run to left field in the 10th inning to give Louisiana a 3-2 victory over Southeastern Louisiana in the Mardi Gras Classic on Saturday at Ragin’ Cajun Softball Park.

It was the second straight 15-strikeout performance for Mitchell on the weekend, following on the heels of Friday night’s three-hit, eight-inning 7-1 win over Texas Tech.

This time, though, it was in relief of freshman Holly Tankersley.

For good measure, the junior All-American came back to register her seventh career no-hitter and fanned 12 with a 1-0 victory over Missouri on Saturday.

The No. 10-ranked Cajuns improved to 12-1 with the two wins, giving them 30 straight home triumphs.

Mitchell is now No. 4 on the school’s career strikeout list with 569 — passing former teammate Melissa Coronado and Jennifer Clendenin on Saturday. Next up is UL coach Stefni Lotief at 576.

As well as Mitchell pitched, though, the Cajuns still needed runs, and scoring was hard-earned in both victories.

Gomez got a solo homer up in a tailwind to right center field with two out in the first inning against SLU, and freshman Hillary Guidry powered a line drive shot to right to lead off the third and provide Tankersley a 2-0 lead.

But the Lions struck for a pair of runs in the bottom of the third when Raeni Landry reached on a one-out error, followed by singles by Karin Smith and Becky de la Garza.

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Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com