The Coastal Carolina University softball team won against the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns in the first two games of their home series; This win is the team’s second successful Sun Belt Conference (SBC) series of the season.
The Chanticleers walked the Ragin’ Cajuns in game one, winning 5-4 on Friday, March 28, followed up with a 10-8 win the next day.
2024 All-Sun Belt Second team third baseman Delaney Keith was one of the lead performers across the weekend.
With two outs trailing by two runs in the bottom of the 7th inning, Keith stepped up to plate with runners on first and second base. After seeing one pitch, Keith sent the second one into the left-center field gap where she scored during both runs and won the game.
In game two, the Ragin’ Cajuns scored three runs in the top of the 1st inning. The Chants then came back and scored seven unanswered runs, starting from the bottom of the 1st to the bottom of the 5th.
Second baseman Keirstin Roose put CCU on the scoreboard first in game two with a run batted in (RBI) single in the bottom of the 1st, allowing Keith to score.
Coastal scored two runs in the 2nd, one in the 4th and three more runs in the 5th inning– ending the 5th at 7-3.
However, the Ragin’ Cajuns scored two runs in the top of the 6th inning.
Roose, again in the mix, hit a run-scoring double sending two-way player Georgia Hood to home. Next up was McKennah Metzger with a two-run home run in the bottom of the 6th, leaving the score 10-5.
The Ragin’ Cajuns went on to score again in the top of the 7th, but they were two runs shy of tying with the Chants, ending the game 10-7.
Hood, a pitcher and first baseman with a special weekend, went 4-4 in game two and started the last game on the pitcher’s mound.
Hood batted 0.402 last season. After playing 35 games this season, she’s leading the team in batting average (BA) at 0.451. This also places her BA second in the SBC but has started 10 more games than the active leader.
“She started today, she plays first base, she does it all. She leads the team in batting average while she can pitch” Roose said, when talking about the two-way slugger senior Hood after game three.
Hood also pitched in eight games, matching that with eight strikeouts and limiting opponents to a 0.212 BA.
“There was a lot of good moments in this series, this was the first time we’ve beaten them in a series so just that is probably my favorite,” Roose said.
The Ragin’ Cajuns won game three in the series, but the Chants had a spectacular performance. The final score was 9-5.
Five Chanticleers hit a home run against the Ragin’ Cajuns, catcher Maddy Jennings hit two. Four of the six total home runs were hit in their game-three loss.
As a team, they have hit the most home runs and driven in the most runs in the SBC through 36 games. The team sits atop the SBC with 58 home runs and 224 RBI’s.
The Chants are now 28-8 overall and 20-6 at St. John Stadium. They will now push toward regionals for the first time since 2012.
The Coastal softball team has won their last two SBC series and after a midweek game at College of Charleston Tuesday, April 1 they will look to win their next conference series starting the end of the week on Friday, April 4 at Georgia Southern University.
