All signs pointed toward Sam Landry getting her third win of the weekend during the UL Ragin’ Cajuns’ 5-2 win and weekend road sweep of Sun Belt foe UL-Monroe on Sunday.
Then the quirky softball rules kicked in.
Starting pitcher Chloe Riassetto pitched the first three innings of the game and left with a 3-0 lead after allowing four walks and one strikeout.
That did not qualify the sophomore southpaw for the win.
Landry came on to pitch three more shutout innings of relief while giving up one hit, no walks and striking out three.
After reliever Lexie Delbrey walked the first two batters of the seventh in relief of Landry, Riassetto returned to the circle to get the final three outs and preserve the three-run win.
That gave Riassetto the requisite four innings after all and therefore the win to improve to 13-3 on the season.
Much of that doesn’t matter to coach Gerry Glasco and his team. The bottom line is UL improved to 38-15 overall and 20-1 in Sun Belt play, while UL-Monroe is 28-23 and 9-12.
UL entered Sunday’s play with a No. 14 RPI and rose to No. 13 after the win. The Cajuns will next play Troy at 6 p.m. Friday at Lamson Park to close out the regular season.
One day after Landry threw a one-hitter in a 1-0 win, the Cajuns’ bats provided enough cushion with five runs in Sunday’s win.
In the first inning, Brooke Ellestad got an RBI single to start the scoring, before single tallies in the second, third and fifth innings.
Cecilia Vasquez followed a walk to Laney Credeur and Victoria Valdez single with a run-scoring base hit for the second run.
Ellestad doubled in the third and scored on Credeur’s RBI groundout.
Maddie Hayden got the RBI single in the fifth before Kayla Falterman made it 5-1 with a two-out RBI single in the seventh.
As a team, the Cajuns collected 11 hits with two hits apiece for Hayden, Ellestad, Valdez and Vasquez.