Sun Belt Conference Weekly News and Notes (Sun Belt Championship)
Championship Central
2014 Sun Belt Conference Championship Bracket
HIGHLIGHTS
POST GAME PRESS CONFERENCE
Landry’s Walk-Off Grand Slam Lifts No. 1 seed UL Lafayette past No. 4 seed WKU 5-3
LAFAYETTE, La. - UL Lafayette sophomore Shellie Landry hit a walk-off grand slam to lead the top-seeded UL Lafayette past the No. 4 seed WKU Lady Toppers, 5-3, on Thursday in the 2014 Sun Belt Conference Softball Championship at Lamson Park.
The Ragin' Cajuns led the bottom of the seventh off with back-to-back groundouts and trailed 3-1 with two outs. The Cajuns loaded the bases on back-to-back singles from sophomores Haley Hayden and Lexie Elkins to stay alive. Sophomore Samantha Walsh, drew a walk to load the bases and bring up Landry.
After falling down to an 0-2 count in her at-bat, Landry took a pair of pitches to work the count to 2-2. She sent the next pitch sailing over the left-center field fence and sent the Ragin' Cajuns to the next round with her second grand slam of the season. UL Lafayette now advances to face No. 2-seeded South Alabama on Friday at 2 p.m. with a trip to the conference championship on the line.
Western Kentucky returns to Lamson Park on Friday morning to play No. 6 seed UL Monroe in an elimination game at 11 a.m.
WKU senior Emily Rousseau (18-17) was in the circle for WKU and gave up six hits with all five runs earned. Rousseau handed out six walks while also striking out three batters. UL-L’s Christina Hamilton (23-1) also pitched the entire contest with six hits allowed and one earned run against her. Hamilton walked one while tabbing three strikeouts.
The Lady Toppers opened the scoring early, getting to Ragin’ Cajuns starter junior Christina Hamilton for two runs on one hit and an error in the top half of the first. They added to that lead in the third when senior Olivia Watkins stole home after an attempted pick-off play at third, to lead 3-0 after two and a half innings.
Sophomore Lexie Elkins helped the Ragin' Cajuns cut the gap in the bottom of the third with her second hit of the day, an RBI single, driving in junior Natalie Fernandez who led the inning off with a walk. The hit cut the WKU lead to 3-1.
Hamilton (23-1), the Sun Belt Conference Pitcher of the Year, retired her final seven batters including a strikeout to end the seventh.
WKU's Rousseau had retired seven straight batters heading into the seventh inning and raised that number to nine with the back-to-back ground balls to the shortstop in the seventh.
The 2014 Softball Championship continues on Friday with the championship game schedule for Saturday at 3 p.m. to be televised live on ESPN3.
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