LOUISIANA Là — Louisiana’s walking wounded were welcomed back to Lady Cajun Softball Park with open arms on Tuesday.

It will take longer for pitcher Brooke Mitchell and shortstop Tiffany Hebert to return to the field, however.

Both junior starters suffered frightening injuries on Sunday as the Cajuns completed a four-game weekend sweep of Sun Belt Conference foe Florida International.

Hebert was first to go down, getting gashed in the right thigh by an FIU base runner on an unsuccessful stolen base attempt.

She received 21 stitches and limped into the park on Tuesday with her thigh still wrapped.

Later in game one, Mitchell was struck above the left eye by a line drive. Nine stitches were needed to close the wound, and she also suffered two facial bone fractures.

Mitchell, the school’s career strikeout leader enjoying an All-American campaign, was viewing life through her right eye Tuesday with the left one still swollen shut.

Doctors are waiting for the swelling to subside further before proceeding with further treatment.

“They told me as soon as I could see out of the left eye, I could start throwing again,” Mitchell said. “I’m not in pain, but they gave me pain killers at the hospital.”

Mitchell, honored once again this week as the Sun Belt Pitcher of the Week, was unaware of the extent of the damage on Sunday.

“I asked if I could pitch, because I wanted to know how bad it was,” Mitchell said. “When he (co-head coach Michael Lotief) just smiled, I knew it wasn’t good.”

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Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com