The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns opened up a big Sun Belt Conference series with a huge win on Friday night.

16th-ranked Louisiana defeated the South Alabama Jaguars, 1-0, in the opening game a three-game, weekend, Sun Belt Conference series at Yvette Girouard Field at Lamson Park.

With the triumph, the Cajuns need just one more win over the Jaguars in one of the final two games of the series from running their Sun Belt Conference series win streak to 58, 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.

For South Alabama, it was their first conference setback of the year in seven games.

Louisiana scored the only run of the game in the bottom of the 5th inning when Kaitlyn Alderink walked, stole second, went to third on a throwing error, and scored on a sacrifice bunt off the bat of Melissa Mayeaux, which gave them a 1-0 lead.

That turned out to be the only score of the game, as UL hung on for the 1-0 shutout win.

The only two hits for Louisiana came on singles by Ciara Bryan and Kendall Talley.

The only two South Alabama hits came on infield singles by Caroline Nichols and Meredith Keel.

Summer Ellyson (6-4) recorded the win in the circle for the Cajuns, tossing a two-hit shutout while striking out out six, as she accumulated her 80th career victory.

Olivia Lackie (11-4) suffered the tough-luck loss for the Jaguars, allowing one unearned run on only two hits over .0 innings.

View the game box score.

With the victory, Louisiana improved to 17-6, overall, and 3-1 in Sun Belt Conference play, while South Alabama fell to 16-9, and 6-1, respectively.

The two teams square off on Saturday in the middle game of the three-game set, with first pitch scheduled for 2 p.m.

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