Battle of theTitans, Louisiana vs Arizona

[NewsCopy]

It doesn't get much bigger than this - not in the regular season, anyway.

This weekend's three-game series between Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns and the Arizona Wildcats is certain to attract big crowds to Ragin' Cajun Softball Park.

Crowds might even exceed the record 1,729 who showed up to see UL and LSU battle in 2001, and they're going to see two of the best pitchers in the game in action.

Arizona's Alicia Hollowell is 15-1 this year with a 0.37 earned run average, along with 220 strikeouts in 114 innings of work. The Wildcats' All-American is the school's leader in career strikeouts (1,122) and is No. 6 in victories (96).

Ragin' Cajun All-American Brooke Mitchell (17-4, 0.74 ERA, 199 K's) is UL's all-time leader in victories (108) and strikeouts (1,166).

Mitchell ranks No. 13 and Hollowell is tied for 20th in NCAA Division I strikeouts, while Mitchell is tied for 17th in career wins.

Clearly, hits and runs will be at a premium this weekend.

There will be no shortage of drama, though.

"Obviously," said UL co-head coach Stefni Lotief, "it says a lot for our program and our community, and it's a huge compliment for Arizona to make a road trip here. I give credit to the University, the community and these players for making it happen."

The springboard for the series was the Cajuns' 5-0 victory over Arizona in last year's NCAA Tournament, knocking the Wildcats out of their own regional and a chance at the Women's College World Series.

Arizona coach Mike Candrea (1,006-193 in his 20th year) called UL's Michael Lotief soon after the campaign to arrange a rare out-of-state matchup for 2005.

"When we heard that Coach Candrea had called, we were excited," said the Cajuns' Danyele Gomez, who delivered a pair of home runs against Hollowell in last year's regional victory. "We were still on a high from beating them last year. It's good to be home to play them, because our fans always support us here."

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Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com

[DaddyCajun]

Well at this point in time yesterday, I bought the last TWO reserved seats for one of my daughters and I and then I bought Two general addmission tickets. So Reserve tickets sold out yesterday FOR TODAYS GAME!! I do not know about Saturday or Sunday. GEAUX OUT AND GET YOUR TICKETS EARLY AND SUPPORT OUR RAGIN CAJUN SOFTBALL TEAM!!!!!!!!!!!!

DaddyCajun!!

[lxa656]

WOOHOO!!! Lets kick some Wildcat _____! Will be tailgating around 4 in the parking lot, all feel free to come swing by and say hi! Look for the Cajun Flag.

[RedBug58]

Well, there was a huge crowd, good weather, and a great atmosphere....but a couple of errors, some bad luck, and a lack of hitting put us on the wrong end of a 2-0 score. Arizona's pitcher has got to be 6ft 1in or more. she's a load. We seem to be equally matched, but we'll need the lucky breaks to come out on top in the next two!

[lxa656]

Boy, you AINT lying, that chick is like 6"9 and weighs 270! Call her Shaq! "That's a huge B*tch," as the movies dictate! Man, that was an exciting game though, glad to see we were able to mess up the perfect game in the bottom of 7 with 2 outs...whew!

[NewsCopy]

Friday night was a perfect evening for softball, and 1,343 fans were on hand to see something special as Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns hosted the Arizona Wildcats.

What they saw was near-perfect mastery by Arizona's All-American pitcher Alicia Hollowell as she came within one out of a perfect game to propel the Wildcats to a 2-0 victory.

Brittany Bryant's first-pitch, clean single to left field with two out in the bottom of the seventh inning gave UL its only base runner of the night as Hollowell faced one over the minimum to improve to 16-1.

"I wanted to get their batters off-balance," said Hollowell. "They're a great hitting team, and this is a tough place to play. I do feel it a little bit when I'm able to take the crowd out of the game.

"Everything was working. They're very aggressive, and they started to get their timing down, so in the end I went to my 'up' and my harder stuff."

"She's an All-American," UL coach Stefni Lotief said. "What can you say? She's one of the best pitchers in the country and she did a great job.

"We'll just try to take the information we got tonight and use it tomorrow."

Cajun All-American Brooke Mitchell (17-5) was Friday's hard-luck loser, allowing five hits and two runs (one earned), walking five and striking out nine.

The Wildcats tallied the only run they would need in the top of the first inning and added another in the third, combining with Hollowell to tone down the festive fans.

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Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com