UL senior pitcher Jordan Wallace

 

The 6th-ranked Louisiana Ragin’ Cajun softball team recorded two victories in the first day of play in the Ragin' Cajuns Invitational on Friday, defeating the Iowa Hawkeyes, 4-3, before blanking the Hofstra Pride, 3-0, at Lamson Park.

The two wins extended Louisiana’s season-opening win streak to 11 games.

In their first game, against Iowa, the Cajuns scored a run in the top half of the first inning, courtesy of a solo by Hayley Hayden, giving them a quick 1-0 advantage.

Louisiana scored an unearned in the top half of the second inning, before Iowa answered with three runs in the bottom half of the frame, two of which were unearned, giving them a 3-2 lead.

Trailing for the first time this season, the Cajuns answered right back, scoring two runs in the top half of the third inning, with one coming off the bat of a Samantha Walsh home run, to grab a 4-3 lead.

From there, Louisiana rode the pitching of senior right-hander Christina Hamilton (1-0) to the 4-3 win, their 10th-consecutive victory of the season,

Hamilton, in her longest outing of the year, threw 5.2 shutout innings in relief of starter Alex Stewart, allowing only three hits.

Hayden and Aleah Craighton each had two hits apiece for Louisiana, while Hayden and Walsh both homered, as UL out-hit Iowa, 8-7.

View the box score

 

In their second game of the day, against Hofstra, the Cajuns scored three runs in the middle innings, and rode the one-hit pitching performance of senior right-hander Jordan Wallace (4-0) to cruise to the 3-0 shutout win.

Lexie Elkins homered in the top half of the fourth inning, before the Cajuns added another run in the top half of the sixth, including one unearned run, as Louisiana out-hit the Pride, 5-1.

Wallace was the story, twirling the complete-game, 7-inning one-hitter, while striking out 13. batters.

For the season, Wallace has now tossed 31 shutout innings, allowing only five hits.

View the box score.

 

With the two wins, Louisiana improved to 11-0 on the young season.

The Cajuns are scheduled to play twice more on Saturday, taking on Hofstra at 12:30 pm, before tangling with Missouri at 3 o’clock.

You can catch all the play-by-play action on ESPN 1420 and espn1420.com beginning with the pre-game show at 12:15 pm.

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