BATON ROUGE — Shortstop Codi Runyan tied the game with a solo homerun in the bottom of the seventh inning and catcher Jessica Lemoine ripped an RBI double in the ninth to lead third-seeded Louisiana-Lafayette to a 4-3 victory over second-seeded NC State on Saturday in the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional at Tiger Park.
The Ragin’ Cajuns (51-20), who fell to No. 1 seed LSU (53-12) in 10 innings earlier in the day, advance to Championship Sunday for the 12th time in school history and will face the Tigers at 1 p.m. CDT. Louisiana-Lafayette must defeat LSU twice to advance to super regional action against the national No. 2 seed Arizona Wildcats next weekend.
A second game is scheduled to be played Sunday at 4 p.m. if necessary.
“That’s a lot of softball,” said ULL head coach Stefni Lotief. “I take my hat off to the kids because I didn’t have to play. They were the ones out there every pitch staying mentally focused and locked in. All 20 of them suited up and our support staff did a great job. I just think that it was a good day for Lady Cajun softball.”
NC State carried a 3-2 lead into the bottom of the seventh as pitcher Shaina Ervin retired 11 of 12 Ragin’ Cajun batters she faced heading into the inning. But Runyan led off by crushing a 2-2 pitch over the batting cages beyond the left field wall for her fourth homerun of the season.
The teams traded at-bats in the eighth inning before Lemoine got the game-winning hit in the bottom half of the ninth.
Third baseman Tara Hamilton led off the inning with a single up the middle, and Runyan followed with a walk to give the Ragin’ Cajuns an opportunity with runners on first and second and nobody out. Lemoine ripped a 2-0 offering to the right-center field wall, scoring Hamilton and giving ULL a 4-3 victory.
“I was trying not to think too much,” Lemoine said. “I just wanted to keep fighting and keep making things happen. I got the pitch and it landed like it needed to.”
Ashley Kirchberg went the distance for the Ragin’ Cajuns and threw 149 pitches to improve her record to 26-2 on the season. Kirchberg allowed just one hit and held NC State scoreless over the final four innings to earn the victory.
Louisiana-Lafayette threatened to take an early first-inning lead on back-to-back one-out singles by leftfielder Danyele Gomez and first baseman Lacey Bertucci, but Gomez was stranded at third base as each of the next two batters failed to drive her home.
The Ragin’ Cajuns threatened again in the bottom of the third inning by loading the bases with nobody out and took advantage of the opportunity by pushing across a pair of unearned runs to grab a 2-0 lead.
Centerfielder Karli Hubbard opened the inning with a walk and was followed by a pair of singles off the bats of second baseman Brittany Bryant and Gomez to load the bases. Hubbard and Bryant scored on a throwing error by NC State third baseman Jennifer Chamberlin attempting to record the force out at home.
But Ervin, who had pitched a complete game shutout against Princeton earlier in the day, settled down to record three quick outs and survive further damage. Rightfielder Ashley Evans grounded out to third base, and designated player Holly Tankersley bounced into a 1-3-4 double play to end the inning.
NC State responded with a pair of runs of its own after loading the bases with two outs in the top half of the fourth inning as Chamberlin led off with a double off the right-center field wall and was sacrificed to third base two batters later.
After Megan Dalthorp and Jennifer Patterson walked to load the bases, pinch hitter Allison Cuculich ripped an RBI single up the middle to score both Chamberlin and Dalthorp and tie the game at two apiece. Cuculich entered the contest hitting just .077 on the season.
The Wolfpack carried that momentum into the fifth inning as designated player Heather Gelbard lined the first pitch into right field for a single. Chamberlin followed two batters later by ripping her second double in as many innings to deep center field, scoring Gelbard and giving her team a 3-2 advantage.
2006 NCAA Baton Rouge Regional
Game 5: (2) North Carolina State vs. (3) Louisiana-Lafayette
May 20, 2006
Jessica Lemoine
On what she was thinking at her last at bat…
“I was trying not to think too much actually, just keep fighting and keep making things happen. I got the pitch and it landed like it needed to.”
On where her hit ranks as big hits in her career…
“A hit is a hit. I love all of them because sometimes they are far and few between so you just take each one as its worth.”
On playing 19 innings today and possibly 2 games tomorrow…
“It’s not possibly, it’s definitely. We’re playing 2 games and we just keep rolling with each inning. The adrenaline takes over and we really don’t notice it until we go to sleep tonight.”
Coach Stefni Lotief
On playing 19 innings today…
“That’s a lot of softball. I take my hat off to the kids because I didn’t have to play. They were the ones out there every pitch staying mentally focused and locked in. We play double headers, usually 14 innings, but we had a couple extra innings both games so I take my hat off to them. All 20 of them suited up and our support staff did a great job. I just think that it was a good day for Lady Cajun softball.”
On getting the team’s emotions up for tomorrow…
“We definitely are going to have a little celebration and enjoy our win tonight because that’s important and they earned that. Then we will go get something to eat and go to bed and wake up with a new challenge tomorrow, but we will definitely celebrate tonight. We will get re-energized and re-focused tomorrow.”
On who will pitch tomorrow…
“The coaching staff will discuss that tonight, but we are going to do whatever it takes for us to win. I think they will both pitch tomorrow.”
2006 NCAA Baton Rouge Regional
Game 5: (2) North Carolina State vs. (3) Louisiana-Lafayette
May 20, 2006
NORTH CAROLINA STATE QUOTES
Head Coach Lisa Navas
Opening Statement
“It was extremely hard. We’ve been through a lot this year. They picked us fifth. Nobody believed we could do much of anything. We just played hard the entire year and I hate it for the kids because they did play hard, we just needed one more hit and one more situation to occur for us and it didn’t happen. I hate to lose.”
Pitcher Shaina Ervin
On the season ending…
“None of us were ready for this season to be over and it’s just a hard way to go out. We battled all year, we believed in ourselves, but we just came up short. It hurts, of course, if it didn’t I don’t think you’d be a competitor.”
Third baseman Jennifer Chamberlin
On coming close to winning…
“Well I think that we really came out at first. We got two or three hits, and then we came in and got the clutch hits and drove some home. It just hurts.”