Texas A&M
Louisiana-Lafayette
Aggies Fall in First Game of Baton Rouge Regional
May 21, 2010 | Softball
May 21, 2010
BATON ROUGE, La. - The No. 18 Texas A&M softball team fell 5-0 to Louisiana-Lafayette in its opening game of the Baton Rouge Regional at Tiger Park on Friday afternoon.
The Ragin' Cajuns (43-16) hit a two-run home run in the first and plated a run in each of the last three innings for the shutout victory.
The Aggies (42-15), who were led by a 2-for-3 performance from senior Alex Reynolds, move on to play the loser of the McNeese State/LSU game at 3 p.m. tomorrow.
"I was disappointed in the way our team played today," said A&M head coach Jo Evans. "Defensively, we did not take care of the ball. We really put ourselves at a disadvantage. Mel (Dumezich) threw well enough for us to win a ball game, but offensively we didn't do a good job of making adjustments at the plate. UL came out and did what they needed to do to win."
The Cajuns got on the scoreboard quickly in the top of the first off of a two-out, two-run home run to center by Gabriele Bridges.
The Aggies came back and loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the first, but were unable to push a run across as Brittany Cuevas recorded her second strikeout to end the inning and get out of the frame unharmed.
No player on either team reached base again until the bottom of the fourth when junior Rhi Kliesing led off with a bloop single just over the third base bag. She was sacrificed to second by junior Kelsey Spittler before Reynolds came through with a soft liner to right field. Kliesing, however, was thrown out at home on the play and the score remained 2-0, in favor of the Cajuns.
Two A&M throwing errors allowed a third UL run to cross the plate in the top of the fifth.
The Cajuns made the score 4-0 with an RBI double to left by Bridges in the sixth. Spittler attempted a diving catch on the hit, but the ball dropped in and bounced past the A&M left fielder as pinch runner Jensen Tydelski scored from first.
A third Aggie error was followed by a fielder's choice RBI from Melissa Verde in the seventh for the final 5-0 score.
Cuevas (21-7) gave up five hits, walked one and struck out eight for the win in the circle, while Dumezich (17-3) was saddled with the loss. She allowed five runs (three earned) on five hits, walked one and fanned six.
Freshman Meagan May, Kliesing and Spittler were each 1-for-3 in the game. Bridges led all hitters going 2-for-3 with three RBIs and a run scored.
