University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Mitchell Reaches Historic Milestone, Cajuns Complete Perfect Weekend
2/6/2005 12:00:00 AM | Softball
LAFAYETTE
– Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns softball team captured the
tournament championship of the 2nd Annual Louisiana's Mardi
Gras Classic with an 8-0, six-inning win over Sam Houston
State and the home faithful was on hand to witness a
historic accomplishment in the 25-year history of the
program.
Senior ace hurler Brooke Mitchell picked up the 1,000th strikeout of her career in the bottom of the first when she struck out Erin Lindsey swinging to end the inning. Mitchell, who entered the game with 998 career strikeouts, became the first player in the history of the Ragin' Cajuns softball program to reach 1,000 career strikeouts and became the 28th player in NCAA Division I history to reach the milestone.
Mitchell ended the game with six strikeouts over four innings and allowed just one hit to the BearKats – a single up the middle of the infield in the third inning by Chrissy Dielo.
The shutout was the Cajuns fourth of the young season and extended the pitching staff's string of consecutive innings without an earned run allowed to 30 innings.
Sam Houston State starter Melissa Collins was competing with Mitchell in the circle after one trip through the lineup. Collins struck out the side in the first inning and held the Cajuns' bats to just one hit after two innings.
The third inning brought up Collins' second round through the Louisiana-Lafayette lineup and this time the Cajuns' sticks were ready to produce.
After a Crystal George fly out to deep center field – the first sign that the Cajuns were getting their timing down and starting to hit Collins – shortstop Tiffany Hebert looped a single into shallow right center field to begin the Cajuns' rally.
Hebert advanced to second on a wild pitch and was brought home for the winning run when Jill Robertson placed a single into center field. That was followed by a single through the left side by Danyele Gomez and a Joy Webre walk which loaded the bases.
After a Brittany Bryant pop out to shortstop gave SHSU its second out recorded of the inning, Lacey Bertucci drew a walk off of a full count for a RBI that scored Robertson and gave the Cajuns a 2-0 lead. The flood gates were opened in the next at bat when Ashley Evans hit a single deep into left field allowing Gomez and Webre to score and make it 4-0.
Tara Hamilton finished off the Cajuns outburst and delivered a crushing blow to SHSU when she lifted a double over the head of SHSU left fielder Stephanie Mosely scoring Evans and Bertucci.
After a scoreless fourth inning Louisiana-Lafayette picked up single runs in the fifth and sixth innings to create the eight-run margin needed for the mercy rule.
Louisiana-Lafayette collected 10 base hits, the third straight outing with double-digit hit totals, with Jill Robertson and Danyele Gomez each posting a team-best two hits. Robertson and Gomez, the 1-2 hitters in the lineup, combined to go 4-for-7 with three runs scored.
Evans (2 RBI) and Hamilton (3 RBI) were the top run producers combining to drive home five runs.
Collins struck out seven Louisiana-Lafayette batters, but was undone by the six-run third inning in which the Cajuns tagged her for five hits.
Louisiana-Lafayette, which had already claimed the tournament title following Saturday's Northwestern State win over SHSU, completed a perfect run through the tournament at 5-0. Combined with last season's 5-0 sprint, the Cajuns improved to 10-0 all-time in Mardi Gras Classic play.
Mitchell picked up her fourth win of the weekend and was named Most Outstanding Player. The Pasadena, Texas, native finished 4-0 with a 0.00 ERA over 21 innings. She struck out 37 batters and surrendered just seven hits.
The ninth-ranked Ragin' Cajuns will be back in action next weekend as they host the Ragin' Cajuns Invitational Friday-Sunday, Feb. 11-13 at Ragin' Cajuns Softball Park. The tournament field includes Louisiana-Lafayette, McNeese State and Mississippi State.
The Cajuns next outing will be the opener of the Ragin' Cajuns Invitational on Friday, Feb. 11 at 7 p.m., against in-state rival McNeese State.
Louisiana-Lafayette 8,
Sam Houston State 0 (Feb 06, 2005 at Lafayette, La.)
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Louisiana-Lafayette. 006 011 - 8 10 0 (5-0)
Sam Houston State... 000 000 - 0 5 0 (2-3)
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Pitchers: Louisiana-Lafayette - Mitchell; Kirchberg(5). Sam
Houston State -Collins; Blythe(5).
Win-Mitchell(4-0) Loss-Collins(0-2) T-2:31
Collins faced 3 batters in the 5th.
-- Ragin' Cajuns --
