LAFAYETTE (Press Release) – Five runs in the fifth inning, all scored with two outs, broke open the contest and sent No. 10 Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns Softball to a 7-1 win over Southeastern Louisiana on Wednesday at Yvette Girouard Field at Lamson Park.
Alissa Dalton ignited the game-changing scoring spree, which stretched out a 1-0 lead, with a heads-up steal of home after a two-out triple. Sarah Hudek extended the lead to 3-0 with an RBI double to score pinch-runner Alaina Guarino, then two batters later Kourtney Gremillion capped off the knockout punch with a bases-clearing double.
Carrie Boswell captured the win in the circle for Louisiana (34-4) after carrying a shutout into the sixth inning. Alison Deville stopped the Lions (22-16) in their tracks after the visitors jumped on the scoreboard in the sixth, tossing 1-2/3 scoreless innings.
The win extends the Ragin’ Cajuns winning streak to 11 games and moves the squad to a season-high, 30-games above the .500 mark.
LEADING THE RAGIN’ CAJUNS
Gremillion finished with her season-high tying three RBI, leading all players in the game, which pushed her season tally past 20.
Julie Rawls joined Gremillion and Hudek in delivering run-scoring doubles as she opened the scoring with one of her own in the third inning.
Dalton led the way with two hits (2-for-4), with both resulting in her scoring a run. The junior shortstop singled off SLU pitcher Alley McDonald with two outs in the third inning to set up Rawls’ RBI double and tripled with two outs in the fifth inning prior to her steal of home.
Keeli Milligan swiped three stolen bases to increase her season total to 40 (in 44 attempts). She becomes only the second player in school history, and first since Dorsey Steamer in 1992, to reach the 40-mark.
Boswell (8-0, 2.28 ERA) held the Lions in check by inducing 13 ground ball outs while scattering five hits. She settled in from the second through fifth inning by retiring 11 of the 12 batters she faced.
Deville was able to coax fly ball outs after an Ella Mazer RBI single in the sixth inning and struck out two of the three batters she faced in the seventh inning.
NOTEWORTHY
Julie Rawls’ caught stealing of SLU’s Jaquelyn Ramon in the first inning marked just the third time in 55 attempts this season that the Lions’ baserunner was thrown out.
Julie Rawls’ picked up her team-high tying 14th two-out RBI of the season with when she snapped a scoreless tie in the third inning. It also increased her season-leading RBI total to 35.
The triple which set up Alissa Dalton for the steal of home in the fifth inning, was her team-leading third of the season.
Now at 40 steals, Keeli Milligan is closing in on Dorsey Steamer’s school record of 51 recorded in the 1992 season.
By pushing her season RBI total to 22, Kourtney Gremillion becomes the eighth Ragin’ Cajun this season with 20-plus RBI.
Louisiana produced four extra base hits (3 doubles, triple) marking the most since posting five (two doubles, three home runs) at South Alabama back on March 24.
Five of the six RBI recorded by the Ragin’ Cajuns came in two-out situations. Louisiana now has 90 two-out RBI.
The combined efforts of Carrie Boswell and Alison Deville holding SLU to one earned run marks the 10th consecutive game the pitching staff has allowed no more than two earned runs.
For the 31st time in 38 games the Ragin’ Cajuns plated the game’s first tally, improving to 30-1 when scoring first.
Louisiana extended its series win streak over Southeastern Louisiana to 33 games and increased its all-time series advantage to 49-1.
UP NEXT
No. 10 Louisiana embarks on a five-game road trip to North Carolina, visiting Appalachian State (April 12-14), Campbell (April 15) and UNC Greensboro (April 16), before returning home Easter Weekend to face Georgia State (April 18-20).
