|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Softball: UL’s fired-up big bats pound WarhawksKevin Foote, The Advertiser, May 8, 2016
PHOTO GALLERY: Cajuns’ Stewart and Fired-Up Big Bats Pound Warhawks
From a pure strategic standpoint, junior centerfielder Aleah Craighton was fine with it. Much like drawing a base on balls, it’s getting on base – passing the bat, in UL softball slang – without having to execute a base hit. It certainly feels a lot worse, though. Leading the team in hit batsmen with nine on the season coming into Sunday’s regular-season finale against UL Monroe, Craighton was hit twice, possibly even three times, and had to elude two other pitches headed right for her. If nothing else, it woke up Craighton’s teammates and the Lamson Park crowd. So imagine how good it felt for Craighton in the bottom of the sixth when she ended the game with a RBI double to deep rightcenter to secure an 8-0 victory over the Warhawks on Mother’s Day at Lamson Park. “If I have to get hit to help the team, OK,” Craighton said. “Not really, it doesn’t (aggravate her). I don’t have to get a base hit and I get on base to help the team.” Asked if she really, really wanted to hit a homer to end it, though, Craighton just smiled. “A home run, a single, a double, a triple – it didn’t matter,” she said. “I just wanted to end it.” The 21 Sun Belt wins ties the school record as well. “Our goal today was to get our swag back (after lackluster Saturday doubleheader),” Craighton said. For a few moments, it appeared the Cajuns might get even more than that. When Craighton was hit for the second time, there was an immediate response from the UL dugout in support of its teammate. Naturally, senior Shellie Landry was leading the charge. “That has nothing to do with her being a senior,” UL coach Michael Lotief laughed of having to quickly point Landry back to the dugout. “That’s in her DNA.” Lotief was very quick to squash any attempts to further the matter. “I didn’t really think anything was going to happen,” he explained. “I reacted the way I did before the umpire had warned us already. I didn’t want anyone getting thrown out because they left the dugout. “That’s a tough kid (Craighton). She just put her bat down and walked to first base.” And as it turned out, it wasn’t just Craighton who relished a measure of redemption in the sixth inning. Two at-bats before, Landry tripled to right to chase home another run and give her 51 RBIs on the season. It’s her third season with over 50 RBIs, and her team-high 17th time getting multi-RBIs in a game this year. “Good for her,” Lotief said of Landry’s triple that closed out her regular-season career at Lamson Park. “I’m so happy for her and that family. What a ride she’s had here. “And I think there’s some Cajun pride (with St. Thomas More product Landry) because she’s one of their own.” As evidence that the Cajuns may have “gotten their swag back” Sunday is the fact that neither Landry or Craighton was actually the hitting star of the day. That was junior second baseman Haley Hayden at 2-for-4 with a double and three RBIs. That gives her 42 RBIs on the season to give her three straight season with over 40 RBIs from the lead-off spot. She’s not hit in 37 of 47 games this season. “It was good to see them jumping around, playing with energy and with passion,” Lotief said. “You have to play this game with passion.” “We got back to the way we compete,” Craighton said. That could be big with postseason 2016 beginning for the Cajuns on Thursday in Mobile, Ala., with the start of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
