The Mardi Gras Classic continues to be a good start for the Louisiana Ragin Cajuns (3-0) as they took two games on Friday against Eastern Illinois (1-1) and Evansville (1-1).
In game one, the Cajuns got out in front in the bottom of the second when Jolie Readeaux with a sac fly that got Brittany Holland home safely. Eastern Illinois tied it up though in the top of the fourth with Haley Mitchell sending one out to right center field.
The Cajuns responded in the bottom of the fifth with Alissa Dalton executing a sac bunt perfectly to get Brittany Rodriguez home safely for what became the game-winner.
Kylee Jo Trahan got the win in a complete game effort. She allowed one run off of three hits, walked two, and struck out nine on the afternoon.
The second game against Evansville was more noteworthy because of Summer Ellyson’s 20 strikeout performance in seven innings of work. Louisiana gave her some run support with one run scored in each of the first three innings, highlighted by a pair of RBI singles from Readeaux and Holland. Evansville got on the board in the top of the fourth with an RBI single of their own, but the Cajuns put the game out of reach in the bottom half of the inning thanks to Aeriyl Mass scoring off of a wild pitch and an RBI single from Kara Gremillion.
Readeaux got her third RBI of the day in the bottom of the fifth with a single out to left field to put the finishing touches on a 7-1 victory.
The Cajuns have two more games on Saturday as part of the Mardi Gras Classic against Eastern Illinois at 2 pm and Iowa at 4:30 pm. They finish off the Mardi Gras Classic on Sunday at 12:30 when they take on Illinois-Chicago.
-Clint Domingue