Louisiana Downs Florida In Dramatic Fashion
The 16th-ranked Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns captured a huge extra inning win on Sunday.
Louisiana defeated the second-ranked Florida Gators, 4-3, in 11 innings, in the final game of a three-game, weekend non-conference series at Lamson Park.
Freshman Casidy Chaumont was the hero, blasting a walk-off two-run home run in the bottom half of the 11th inning, to give the Cajuns the dramatic, hard-fought win.
With the win, UL salvaged the final game of the three-game set after Florida captured both ends of a doubleheader on Saturday, winning by scores of 4-0 and 9-0.
The loss was the first of the year Gators, who had shutout their opposition in 7 of their first 8 games, prior to Sunday.
Florida got on the scoreboard first, plating two runs in the top half of the second inning, when Amanda Lorenz drove home two runs with a two-out single, to give them a 2-0 lead.
Louisiana tied it in the bottom half of the third inning, courtesy of a one-out, two-run single by Alissa Dalton, to knot things up, 2-2.
The score would stay that way, into extra innings.
UL had a great chance to end it in the bottom half of the 9th inning, with runners at second and third with only one out, but failed to score the game-winning run.
The Gators would score a go-ahead run in the top half of the 11th inning, when Hannah Adams delivered a two-out double, scoring Ocasio, to give them a 3-2 lead.
That would set the stage for Chaumont's dramatics in the bottom half of the inning however.
Kara Gremillion reached on a one-out single to right-field, before Chaumont launched the game-winning homer, her second of the season, to give the Cajuns the exciting triumph.
Florida, who outhit Louisiana, 8-7, was paced at the plate by Lorenz and Ocasio, who each recorded two hits.
The Cajuns were paced at the plate by Chaumont, who belted the walk-off homer, and Dalton, who accumulated two hits and two RBI's.
Summer Ellyson (3-0), who threw 185 pitches, recorded the win for Louisiana, allowing 4 runs on 7 hits over 11 innings pitched in an incredibly gutsy effort.
Aleshia Ocasio, who came in relief of starter Kelly Barnhill, suffered the loss for Florida, allowing 2 runs on 6 hits over 7.1 innings pitched.
View the game one box score here.
Coupled with the 9-4 win over Oregon St. on Thursday night, UL went 2-2 on the week, against two good teams.
With the win, Louisiana improved to a 7-0 on the season, while Florida dropped to 8-1.
The Cajuns return to action on Thursday, taking on the Southeastern Louisiana Lions in the first day of play in the 32nd Annual Louisiana Classics at Lamson Park.
