Ragin' Cajuns Win Sun Belt Championship

The championship game of the 2008 Sun Belt Conference Softball Championships belonged to the No. 1 seed Ragin’ Cajuns as Louisiana defeated No. 7 seed ULM 13-0 in five innings.

Louisiana brought the heat early scoring four runs in the second inning. The dominating Ragin’ Cajuns relied on hot hitting and stellar defensive play to capture the title of the best in the Sun Belt for the eighth time in the past nine years. Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year, Holly Tankersley, made her presence known fast drilling a solo shot over the center field fence.

Then two batters later, after Melissa Verde walked, Lana Bowers gave the Ragin’ Cajuns two homeruns in the inning hitting her eighth homerun of the season and extending Louisiana’s lead to three. But, the Ragin’ Cajuns weren’t done yet as they scored one more run in the inning off a Karli Hubbard single that scored Brooke Brodhead.

To keep things rolling Louisiana scored three more runs in the top of the fifth inning to extend their lead to 13. The Ragin’ Cajuns went up by 11 runs on a Tankersley single to left center field that scored Hubbard. Then Verde singled down the left field line driving in Soto and finally after Brodhead popped up to the shortstop a throwing error in the infield resulted in Courtney Trahan scoring her first run of the day.

Sun Belt Conference Pitcher of the Year, Ashley Brignac, was nearly perfect finishing the game with no runs and giving up just three hits. With the win Brignac improved her record to 27-6.

With the win Louisiana-Lafayette earns an automatic bid to the 2008 NCAA Softball Championships. The Ragin’ Cajuns will learn their NCAA destination on Sunday night during the 2008 NCAA Softball selection show on ESPNU.