University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Lady Eagles Go Back to Baton Rouge
5/15/2001 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Lady Eagles Go Back to Baton Rouge
For the third straight year, and every year since the program was reinstated, the Southern Miss softball team is going to the NCAA Regionals and to its "home" for the Regionals. The Lady Eagles have gone to Baton Rouge for every regional tournament appearance, and, for the last two years, have won each tournament.
The No. 4-seeded Lady Eagles (46-19) will face No. 3 Louisiana-Lafayette (49-8) in the first round on Thursday, May 17, at 1:30 p.m. The games will be broadcast on WQNZ, 107.1 FM, with Lance Pittman calling the action.
Other teams featured in NCAA Regional 3 are No. 1 LSU (53-9), facing No. 6 Cornell (36-16) at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, and No. 2 Arizona State (34-20), playing No. 5 Penn State (32-26) at 10:30 a.m.
Alana Addison who features a .422 batting average, 14 home runs and 75 runs batted in, leads the Cajuns. As a team, ULL is batting .292 with five starters hitting over .300.
Two pitchers have performed all the action in the circle for the Cajuns. Melissa Coronado has made the most appearances, holding a 33-7 record with a 1.64 ERA and 185 strikeouts. Micah Barbato is 16-1 on the year with a 1.26 ERA and 54 strikeouts.
Southern Miss is coming off its second-straight Conference USA tournament championship, beating DePaul 2-0 in the championship game. The Lady Eagles won their first two games of the tournament, beating Saint Louis, 9-0 in five innings, and South Florida, 1-0.
USM advanced to the winners bracket and, initially faced DePaul, last Friday night. The Blue Demons held a 1-0 lead in the second inning before weather caused the game to be postponed until Saturday morning. The game ended with DePaul controlling the contest, 5-0.
Southern Miss then faced Louisville, after the Cardinals defeated South Florida, 2-1, to advance. Louisville held a 1-0 lead, going into the fifth inning, but the Lady Eagles' bats came alive late, scoring two runs in the sixth and five in the seventh and claiming a 7-1 victory and a rematch with DePaul in the final.
C-USA Pitcher of the Year and Tournament Most Valuable Player Felicia Gonzales (29-9, 1.29 ERA, 358 Ks) tossed her second shutout of the tournament, holding the Blue Demons to five hits and two walks and leading the Lady Eagles to a 2-0 championship victory. Sarah Boyd, who held the hot bat throughout the event (7-for-13, .538, in five games), came through in the fourth with a two-RBI double, scoring pinch-runner Melanie Hymel and Channika Gant.
Along with Gonzales and Boyd, Kenya Peters and Tammy Edwards were named to the C-USA All-Tournament team.
capitalized on mistakes. It's a great win going into next weekend's match
