The Louisiana Ragin Cajuns found themselves in the losers bracket of the Lafayette Regional after falling 8-0 to Baylor earlier in the day. This time, they took the field at Lamson Park against the Princeton Tigers, a team Louisiana defeated on Friday.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
The third inning started with a Mihyia Davis single followed by Maddie Hayden reaching on an error. Then, Sam Roe beat out an infield single to load the bases for Victoria Valdez, who was hit with the first pitch but the umpire ruled it as not a hit-by-pitch due to Valdez sticking her elbow out. Valdez then hit a sacrifice fly to left field to score Davis and put the Cajuns in front.
In the bottom half, Grace Jackson singled before moving to third on a pair of groundouts. Then, freshman star Sonia Zhang got an RBI single to score Jackson and tie the game.
Seven innings would not be enough to decide this one as both teams go scoreless in the final four innings to force extra innings. In the eighth, Alexa Langeliers took advantage of a missed play by Cate Bade and turned what would’ve been a single into a triple. Cecilia Vasquez then hit a sacrifice fly to left that was deep enough to score Langeliers and break the 1-1 tie.
Louisiana retired Princeton in order to secure the 2-1 victory and advance to Championship Sunday for the 17th straight season.
BIG NUMBER: 17
This will be the 17th consecutive season that the Cajuns have played on Championship Sunday as they will look to beat Baylor twice on Sunday.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Chloe Riassetto
Riassetto pitched a complete game, allowing just four hits and giving up the lone run, giving her offense the opportunity to win it late.
UP NEXT: Louisiana will meet up with Baylor tomorrow in the final of the Lafayette Regional needing to beat the Bears twice to advance to the Super Regional.