LOUISIANA Lŕ — Brooke Mitchell is on her way to a dream season, but UL Lafayette softball fans are dreaming if they think the junior pitcher is getting carried away by all the excitement.

Mitchell became the school’s career strikeout leader in Wednesday’s doubleheader sweep of Louisiana Tech in Ruston, exceeding Kyla Hall’s 820 with 823, with an eye-opening 380 K’s this season.

That kind of milestone is noteworthy, but you wouldn’t know it from the low-key Mitchell.

“It makes me feel really good,” Mitchell said, “but I prefer winning the World Series over that.”

Mitchell, whose pitching carried the Cajuns to the WCWS in 2003, was surprised to learn of her latest achievement.

“I’m not really aware of my strikeouts during a game,” Mitchell said. “I’ll come off the field after a game and my parents will ask me how many strikeouts I had, and I have no idea. I try not to keep track of it.”

Let UL fans take care of that — something achieved by the now-traditional ‘K’ countdown followed by the elongated “Kee-yaw!” from her dedicated followers.

Mitchell just wants to win, and she also does that as well as anyone in school history.

She is 77-18 in her career, No. 4 on the school’s career list (current co-head coach Stefni Lotief is No. 3 at 78 and No. 1 Hall had 104). This year alone, Mitchell is 31-3, closing in on Melissa Coronado (35, 2001) and Cheryl Longeway (34, 1996) for the single-season mark.

“First of all,” Lotief said, “Brooke is very smart. And she’s a very hard worker. Obviously she has God-given ability and is very blessed, but she’s not 6-feet tall. She’s about 5-foot-6. She has a lot of heart and a lot of guts. She brings tenacity to the mound.

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Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com