Softball: Cajuns capture dramatic walk-off win over No. 2 Florida + photo gallery

Kevin Foote, The Advertiser, Feb. 18, 2018

Athletic Network Footnote by Dr. Ed Dugas.
Click here for photo gallery Cajuns Beat the Gators.

There were moments during the weekend’s three-game series against the No. 2-ranked Florida Gators at Lamson Park that many questioned the thought process.

But UL coach Gerry Glasco and his staff stuck to their plan of maximizing their team’s chances to win game three of the series.

And their No. 16-ranked Ragin’ Cajuns rewarded them Sunday with a dramatic 4-3 walk-off win over Florida in the bottom of the 11th.

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Freshman second baseman Casidy Chaumont hit a one-out, two-run homer on a 2-2 pitch for the game-winner.

“I was expecting her (Aleshia Ocasio) to go up or out,” Chaumont said. “The last thing I was expecting was a change-up. I guess I waited long enough and I got a hold of it.”

Last week, the Sam Houston High product experienced the joy of smashing a homer in her first collegiate at-bat.

On Sunday, she got her first game-winner.

“There is nothing that compares to it,” Chaumont said. “Seeing your team at home(plate) and everyone screaming, knowing that you got the game-winning hit, there’s nothing like it.”
With that one swing, Chaumont brought UL starting pitcher Summer Ellyson to tears.

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After throwing 11 innings and 187 pitches against the nation’s No. 2 ranked team, it might have been the understandable tears of a different kind without Chaumont’s heroics.

“For me, it was waterworks (in dugout after the HR),” Ellyson said. “It couldn’t help it. I was so happy. I wanted to win so bad.”

It took that kind of grit and determination for the Cajuns (7-2) to even be in that position in the bottom of the 11th. Prior to Hannah Adams’ two-out RBI double in the top of the 11th that produced a 3-2 Gator lead, Ellyson had only allowed two singles over the previous seven innings.

“I just kept going, “One more inning, one more inning,’” said Ellyson, who said her endurance wasn’t even discussed in the dugout during the game.

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“We wanted to win so bad. You have to be that 12-year-old kid who just wants to win.”

Once Florida took the lead in the 11th, Ellyson remained positive.

“I just kept saying, ‘Come on, we’ve got to stay up. We’ve got this. Just go out and do one thing, get a base hit’,” said Ellyson, who allowed eight hits, six walks and struck out five in 11 innings. “Keep it small.”

Kara Gremillion did just that by fighting off tough pitch after tough pitch to get a one-out single to set up Chaumont, who selected big.

“I just trying to do the best for my team,” Chaumont said. “We needed two runs to beat them and that’s what we got.”
The other big reason the Cajuns were in position for Chaumont to shine was Alissa Dalton’s two-run single in the third that tied the game at 2-2, where it stayed for eight innings.

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“Allisa Dalton is just one of the best players in America,” Glasco said. “She’s phenomenal offensively and defensively.”

The thrilling walk-off was a total reversal of fortunes for the Cajuns after the 9-0 run-rule loss Saturday night.

“It can’t get much worse,” Chaumont said. “We just got run-ruled, so we had to leave it all out on the field today and that’s what we did.”
Win or lose, Glasco was amazed with how well the Cajun faithful of 2,040 fans stuck with the team after Saturday’s 9-0 blowout loss.

“I couldn’t believe how well the fans stuck with us after last night,” Glasco said. “That says so much about this community and about this program.”

In fact, it made such a big impression on Glasco that he didn’t even have his normal postgame meeting with his players after the game.
“I told them to just go meet with the fans after the way the fans stuck with us through all 11 innings,” he said. “I can talk to them later.”