UL Softball Rolls Past Mississippi Valley St., 8-0

Louisiana's Ragin' Cajun softball team opened-up play in the Lafayette, La. NCAA Softball Regional on Friday night, defeating the Mississippi Valley St. Devilettes, 8-0, in six-inning mercy-rule style at Lamson Park.

Louisiana jumped on top in the bottom of the third inning, scoring two runs. Third baseman Natalie Fernandez led off the inning with an infield single, before outfielder Katie Smith singled. Shortstop Nerissa then doubled, driving home Fernandez, and sending Smith to third, who later scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of outfielder Brianna Cherry, making it 2-0, UL.

The Cajuns opened things up in the bottom of the fifth, scoring five times, thanks to a two-run homer by first baseman Matte Haack, and a three-run homer by second baseman Paige Cormier, making it 7-0.

Louisiana ended things in the home half of the sixth, when Cherry singled with two outs, advanced to second on a walk to Sarah Draheim, and then scored on a single by Cormier, giving the Cajuns the 8-0 mercy-rule win.

Ashley Brignac (22-3) recorded the win for UL, throwing a complete-game one-hit shutout, while striking out nine batters over six innings.

Alicia Lorenz (19-9) suffered the loss for the Devilettes, allowing ten hits, and seven runs, over 4.2 innings of work.

The win, which was in front of a record crowd of 2,628 fans, was the seventh in as many opportunities against Mississippi Valley St., and moved the Cajuns' all-time record in regional play to 53-44.

With the win, Louisiana improves to 50-4 on the year, while Mississippi Valley St. fell to 34-18.

Louisiana advances to the winners bracket on Saturday at 1 pm, when they take on the Stanford Cardinal, who defeated the Baylor Lady Bears, 1-0, in the first game of the day.

You can catch all the action of the UL/Stanford game on Sports Radio ESPN 1420, and espn1420.com, beginning with the pre-game show, at 12:40 pm.