LAKE CHARLES — The Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns Softball team fell victim to a pair of improbable two-out rallies and later suffered heartbreak on an unearned run in the 13th inning in a 6-5 (13 inn.) loss to McNeese on Wednesday, April 6, at Joe Miller Field at Cowgirl Diamond.

In regulation, it was a two-out RBI double from Karly Heath in the sixth inning that upped Louisiana’s edge to 3-1, providing what seemed to be valuable insurance for Meghan Schorman who had retired the Cowgirls in order from the second through fifth inning.

But in the bottom half of the sixth McNeese took advantage of an extended inning, eventually stringing together back-to-back, two-out hits that resulted in the equalizing run crossing the plate.

From there the teams played a 3-all stalemate into the 11th inning. That’s when Louisiana (23-10) appeared to be in the driver’s seat after Kramer Eschete lifted a two-run single over a drawn-in infield for a 5-3 lead.

McNeese (22-14) once again responded with another two-out rally to keep the contest going. Kendall Talley delivered an RBI double and later scored on an errant throw on a dropped third strike to even the score at 5-all.

The Ragin’ Cajuns got their leadoff batter on in the 13th inning, but were unable to scratch a run as Stormy Kotzelnick’s deep fly to right center was caught at the wall for the final out of the frame.

The Cowgirls placed their first two batters aboard in the home half, then had an intentional walk issued to load the bases for a force play at home. Crislyne Moreno hit an infield grounder, however the throw home was high and game-winning run was able to cross home plate.

The loss overshadowed a dominant pitching effort from the Ragin’ Cajuns pitching staff that saw Schorman (6), Kandra Lamb (7) and Sam Landry (5) combine for 18 strikeouts.

Schorman started the game and yielded only one base hit over the first 5-2/3 innings, then Lamb tossed 4-1/3 innings of no-hit softball to push the game past the 10th inning.

Schorman (6-4, 2.31 ERA) suffered the hard-luck defeat after re-entering the game in the 13th inning. The Cowgirls rallied with a leadoff single and walk, then the intentional walk set up the go-ahead run.

Heath (3-for-5, double, HR, 2 RBI) and Maddie Hayden (3-for-6) shared game-high honors with three hits apiece to lead the charge for Louisiana’s offense which recorded 14 base hits.

The Ragin’ Cajuns defense committed a season-high tying four errors – each factoring into the four unearned runs the Cowgirls collected in the game.

The loss was the second straight for Louisiana, following up another hard-luck loss last Sunday in the series-finale at Texas State. McNeese extended its season-best winning streak to 10 games.

The Cowgirls snapped a five-game losing streak, overall, to the Ragin’ Cajuns, and defeated their I-10 neighbors in Lake Charles for the first time since April 2007.

Up next

Louisiana (23-10, 9-3 Sun Belt) returns home to Yvette Girouard Field at Lamson Park for another key Sun Belt Conference series, hosting Troy (22-10, 8-4 Sun Belt) from Friday-Sunday, April 8-10.

The series begins Friday at 6:00 p.m., continues Saturday at 2:00 p.m. and concludes Sunday at 12:00 p.m. All games are set to air on ESPN+ and can be heard on ESPN Lafayette 103.3 FM and 1420 AM.

The Ragin’ Cajuns and Trojans currently stand second and third, respectively, in the Sun Belt standings. Both squads are seeking to keep pace with current league leader South Alabama (15-14, 8-1 Sun Belt).

It’s the second of a series of three straight critical SBC series for Louisiana, which began last weekend at Texas State and concludes next weekend (April 14-16) at South Alabama.