UL Softball Opens Series Against Georgia Southern With Win

The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns opened up their second Sun Belt Conference series of the weekend with another win on Sunday afternoon.

16th-ranked Louisiana defeated the Georgia Southern Eagles, 9-2, in the opening game a three-game, weekend, Sun Belt Conference series at Yvette Girouard Field at Lamson Park.

Earlier in the day, the Cajuns shutout South Alabama, 6-0, to complete a three-game conference series sweep of the Jaguars, while getting the series with Georgia Southern started a couple of hours later.

With the triumph, the Cajuns need just one more win over the Eagles in one of the final two games of the series from running their Sun Belt Conference series win streak to 59, a school and Sun Belt Conference record, as well as the longest current conference win streak in the nation.

Louisiana has not dropped a conference series since the weekend of St. Patrick's Day in 2013.

The triumph over Georgia southern extended UL's current win streak to five.

Louisiana got on the scoreboard first, scoring two runs in the bottom half of the first inning when Kendall Talley belted a two-run home run, her first of the season, giving them a quick 2-0 lead.

The Cajuns added two more runs on another two-run homer in the bottom half of the second inning, this one off the bat of Melissa Mayeaux, her first of the season, which extended their lead to 4-0.

Louisiana widened its lead even more in the bottom half of the third inning when Alissa Dalton singled, before scoring on a run-scoring single off the bat of Jade Gortarez, which made it 5-0.

Georgia Southern trimmed the deficit in the top half of the fourth inning, scoring two runs on back-to-back home runs by Ashlynn Gunter and Faith Shirley, which cut the UL lead to 5-2.

The Cajuns added four insurance runs in the bottom half of the sixth inning, including run-scoring singles by Ciara Bryan and Dalton, which made it 9-2.

That was more than enough for UL, as they went on to the 9-2 victory.

Louisiana, who outhit Georgia Southern, 10-3, was led at the plate by Mayeaux, who collected three hits, including a home run, while Talley also homered.

In a losing cause for Georgia Southern, Gunter and Shirley both homered.

Kandra Lamb (10-2) recorded the win in the circle for the Cajuns, allowing two runs on three hits over 6.0 innings of work.

Rylee Waldrep (2-3) suffered the loss for the Eagles, allowing four runs on four hits over 3.0 innings.

View the game box score.

With the victory, Louisiana improved to 20-6, overall, and 6-1 in Sun Belt Conference play, while Georgia Southern fell to 7-12, and 0-3, respectively.

The two teams square off in a doubleheader on Monday, representing the final two games of the three-game set, with first pitch scheduled for 4 p.m.