UL Softball Completes Sweep Of Coastal Carolina
The softball wins, and the conference series sweeps, just continue to pile up for the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns.
8th-ranked Louisiana defeated the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers on Sunday afternoon, 3-2, in the final game of a three-game, weekend, Sun Belt Conference series at Yvette Girouard at Lamson Park, the final regular season game of the year.
The win, which completed a three-game conference sweep of Coastal Carolina, extended UL's current win streak to 23 games.
With their wins over Coastal Carolina in the first two games of the series, the Cajuns also extended their league series win streak to 54, a school and Sun Belt Conference record, as well as the longest current conference win streak in the nation.
Louisiana has not dropped a conference series since the weekend of St. Patrick's Day in 2013.
The triumph also set a new school record for conference wins in a season.
The Cajuns, who also defeated the Chanticleers, 5-2, on Friday evening, and 8-0 on Saturday afternoon, wound up outscoring Coastal Conference St., 13-4, in the three-game set.
The conference sweep was the 8th-straight for Louisiana.
With the triumph, UL also ran their Sun Belt Conference win streak to 24 games to begin this season, while improving their overall league win streak to 29 games, dating back to last year.
Coastal Carolina got on the scoreboard first, plating a run in the top half of the first inning, when Kassidy Smith, the league's leader in home runs, belted a solo shot to left-field, her 14th of the season, to give them a quick 1-0 lead.
The Chanticleers added another run in the top of the 2nd inning, unearned, when Adrienne Visintine reached on an infield single, before scoring on a squeeze bunt, to widen their advantage to 2-0.
Louisiana tied the game in the bottom half of the 2nd inning, when Raina O'Neal doubled home a run, before Kourtney Gremillion drove home another run with a clutch two-out single, to even the contest, 2-2.
The Cajuns took the lead for good in the bottom half of the 6th inning, scoring the go-ahead run, when Alissa Dalton singled, before later scoring on an infield single by O'Neal, and after an errant throw, to give them a 3-2 lead.
That was all UL would need, as they held on for the 3-2 win, and the series sweep.
Louisiana, who outhit Coastal Carolina, 7-2, was led at the plate by ONeal, who went 2-for-3 with a run scored and a run batted in, along with Kourtney Gremillion, who also drove in a run.
Summer Ellyson (33-4) recorded the win inside the circle for the Cajuns, tossing 5.2 innings of perfect softball in relief, while striking out 5 batters.
For Ellyson, who lead the nation in wins, it was her third victory in the series.
Kaitlyn Beasley-Polko (21-12) suffered the loss for the Chanticleers, allowing 3 runs on 7 hits, over 6.0 innings.
With the victory, the Cajuns improved to 46-4, overall, and 24-0 in Sun Belt Conference play, while Coastal Carolina dropped to 33-18, and 11-13, respectively.
Louisiana returns to action on Thursday evening, when they travel to Monroe, La. to take on ULM in the final regular season conference series of the season.