LAFAYETTE (KATC) – The offense displayed its power and 13th-ranked Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns Softball received a strong relief effort in the circle from Carrie Boswell in a 5-2 win over Stephen F. Austin in the championship game of the 33rd Louisiana Classics.
Julie Rawls stole the show at the plate as she homered twice – once to pull the Ragin’ Cajuns even and the second time providing the lead in the fifth inning.
Boswell entered in the third inning and halted the LadyJacks momentum, allowing only one inherited runner to score, before retiring 10 of the final 11 batters that she faced.
Louisiana (11-0) closed out its season-opening homestand and continued the program’s best start since 2015.
LEADING THE RAGIN’ CAJUNS
Rawls wound up with game-high honors in RBI and collected the first multi-home run game of her career.
Kourtney Gremillion and Sarah Hudek also hit solo home runs as Louisiana finished with a season-high four in the contest. The Ragin’ Cajuns increased their season total to 15 through 11 games.
Lexie Comeaux also had a multiple-hit outing finishing 2-for-3 and extended her reached base streak to 10 games. Alissa Dalton provided the final tally with a sacrifice fly.
Boswell limited SFA (8-3) to two hits over 3-2/3 innings in relief of starting pitcher Kandra Lamb. She delivered her third scoreless relief effort of the season.
KEY MOMENTS OF THE GAME
Faced with runners on the corners and no-outs in the second inning, Comeaux picked off Margarita Cornona at third base. Lamb then went on to retire the next two batters to keep the contest scoreless.
Gremillion picked up an errant throw on SFA’s run-scoring single in the third inning to throw out Alex Hedspeth at home and prevent the visitors from building more momentum.
Rawls answered the SFA tally with her leadoff home run in the third inning. In her next at bat she lifted a solo shot over the right field wall again for a 2-1 advantage in the fifth inning.
Gremillion followed Rawls with a fifth-inning homer of her own to extend the lead and chase SFA starting pitcher Kassidy Wilbur.
UP NEXT
No. 13 Louisiana travels to Waco, Texas for the Baylor Invitational set for Friday-Sunday, Feb. 22-24 at Getterman Stadium on the Baylor University campus. There the Ragin’ Cajuns will face Baylor, Kent State and North Texas.
The Ragin’ Cajuns open tournament play on Friday facing Kent State (12:30 p.m.) and Baylor (5:30 p.m.), then wrap up round robin play on Saturday with North Texas (10 a.m.). Bracket play begins Saturday afternoon with matchups determined by round robin results.
