Lexie Comeaux had to hold back the tears.
The University of Louisiana senior catcher-outfielder stood on the artificial turf of Yvette Girouard Field at Lamson Park on Sunday answering questions about her team’s 3-2 victory over Coastal Carolina on Ragin’ Cajun Senior Day.
Comeaux, one of four seniors on this year’s team, admitted that she had no idea how difficult it would be to play her final regular season game at home.
“Yes, it was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be,” said Comeaux. “You don’t really know how to prepare yourself for possibly your last game at the park you’ve been playing at for the past five years. I didn’t really know what to expect.”
Comeaux may not have known what to expect when it came to emotions of Sunday’s game, but that didn’t prevent her, or her Ragin’ Cajun teammates, from pulling out the one-run victory.
Coastal Carolina (33-18, 11-13 SBC) got on the board first scoring two runs off of UL senior starter Alison Deville.
Kassidy Smith hit her league-leading 14th home run of the season in the first, and Chelsea Davilar’s sacrifice bunt in the second gave the Chanticleers a 2-0 lead.
Deville, making her first career start, gave up two hits, two runs (one earned), with one strikeout in one and one third innings of work.
“If we would have won without starting Alison Deville on the mound, it wouldn’t have been the right way to win,” UL second-year head coach Gerry Glasco said. “It wouldn’t have been the right thing. We did the right thing. The right thing was on senior day for her to be out there on that mound.
“She did great. Unfortunately, I think the pressure and the emotions of it, (got to teammates). We made an uncharacteristic bobble there and put her in a really bad position.”
UL (46-4, 24-0 SBC) brought in the nation’s leading wins leader Summer Ellyson and the former Teurlings Catholic star got out of the jam. Ellyson would pitch five and two third innings of work not surrendering a single hit and striking out five.
In the bottom of the second, UL’s Raina O’Neal put the Cajuns on the board with a RBI double, and Kourtney Gremillion later brought O’Neal home with a single inside the left field line.
In the bottom of the sixth, Comeaux dropped a single down the left field line which was followed by a single through the left side of the infield by Alissa Dalton.
After a fielder’s choice by Sarah Hudek, O’Neal hit a hard hit ball to the Coastal Carolina second baseman Abbey Montoya who bobbled it allowing both O’Neal to reach first and Dalton to cross home plate.
That proved to be enough as UL picked up its school record 24th conference win of the season, and 23rd straight of the season. UL will close out the regular season with a three-game series at rival UL Monroe next weekend.
As for Sunday, it was a day for Comeaux, Deville, Kara Gremillion and Keeli Milligan to reflect back on being part of the Ragin’ Cajuns program.
“It hit me pretty hard, not thinking of myself, but watching teammates that I’ve gotten the pleasure of playing along side, four years with Kara (Gremillion) and five years with Alison (Deville),” Comeaux said. “Getting so close to them. They’re literally like my sisters, and Keeli (Milligan) has gotten so close to me in such a short amount of time.”