LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) – A pair of solo home runs, key defensive stops early and a stellar relief effort from Sam Landry resulted in a 2-0 win for the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns Softball team over South Alabama on Sunday, April 9 at Yvette Girouard Field at Lamson Park, completing a Sun Belt Conference series sweep.
With the win Louisiana (30-10, 11-1 Sun Belt) stretched its winning streak to a season-high seven games and maintained sole possession of first place in the Sun Belt standings as the first half of league play came to a close.
The Ragin’ Cajuns protected the shutout – the second straight of South Alabama (25-13, 8-4 SBC) to close the series – when Mihyia Davis’ throw from center field beat Sasha Willems (two-out double) to the plate for the final out of the top of the first inning.
After USA worked around Davis’ leadoff triple in the bottom of the first, Landry (5.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 K) kept the early stalemate intact by working out of a bases loaded jam with no outs in the top of the second inning. Stormy Kotzelnick made a leaping catch of a line drive and Lauren Allred fired home for a force out to set up the Cajuns to escape the threat.
Kylei Griffin rewarded Landry with a run in the next half inning as her two-out solo home run in the bottom of the second broke the scoreless tie.
From there Landry proceeded to finish blanking the Jaguars the next four innings, retiring the side in order in the third and fourth innings and facing only two over the minimum the remainder of her time in the circle.
Karly Heath launched the Cajuns’ second home run off of Olivia Lackie in the third inning to provide Landry additional separation. Lackie stranded a Ragin’ Cajuns runner at third base later that half inning and again in the fourth inning to give her team a chance in the latter innings.
Landry handed off the shutout bid to Kandra Lamb in the seventh inning. Lamb shook off a leadoff hit by pitch by retiring the next three Jaguars, two by strikeout, to notch the save and secure Louisiana’s series sweep.
Landry hurled five scoreless innings at the Jags for the second straight day to complete a spotless 10 innings of five-hit softball pitched in the series. The performance also completed an entire week of lockdown softball pitched by Landry, adding to the four scoreless innings in a start on Tuesday at McNeese. She finished the week 3-0 yielding just six hits and striking out 10 while holding foes to a .122 average.
The home runs from Griffin and Heath upped the Ragin’ Cajuns total in the series off of Jaguars pitching to seven, of which five were hit off of Lackie. Heath picked up her second home run of the series, joining Laney Credeur who hit three in Saturday’s doubleheader in totaling multiple home runs over the weekend.
Landry picking up starting pitcher Meghan Schorman led to the Ragin’ Cajuns pitching staff collecting its fourth shutout in Sun Belt play (13th overall). The staff held the opposition to two runs or less for the eighth time in 12 games in SBC action and the 25th time overall (out of 40 games).
Louisiana extended its series-best winning streak over South Alabama to 23 games, now having won every game against the Jaguars since 2016. The all-time series lead over South Alabama advanced to 45-11 which now includes a 24-2 mark at Lamson Park.
UP NEXT FOR LOUISIANA
The Ragin’ Cajuns embark on their annual Spring Break trip, traveling to the State of Texas for midweek games at Baylor and Texas A&M from Tuesday-Wednesday, April 11-12.
The first stop is in Waco on Tuesday (April 11) to meet Baylor, followed by a matchup with the Aggies in College Station on Wednesday (April 12). Both games are scheduled to begin at 6:00 p.m. and will be televised on ESPN+ and SEC Network+, respectively.
The Spring Break games mark the start of a week-long stretch of chances for Top 50 RPI wins for the Ragin’ Cajuns who return to Yvette Girouard Field at Lamson Park to meet Texas State in a Sun Belt Conference series from Friday-Sunday, April 14-16.
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