Troy Softball Falls to UL Lafayette

Saturday, April 8

Lafayette, La.

2 PM

Troy University

16-23, 4-10

UL Lafayette

27-5, 10-0

Troy

Louisiana

Photo by: Colin Edwards

4/8/2017 6:48:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: Grace Bolin

LAFAYETTE, Louisiana- Troy (16-24, 4-11 SBC) fell to No. 16 UL Lafayette (28-5, 11-0 SBC) 3-1 in game one and 11-0 in game two in Saturday's doubleheader at Lamson Park.

Game one: Troy 1, ULL 3
The Trojans held the number one scoring offense in the country to just three runs in game one. UL-Lafayette is averaging 8.42 runs per game this season.

Troy took an early lead as Becca Hartley crushed her 14^th home run of the season in the third inning, but the runs stalled for Troy in the rest of the game as no other Trojans were able to work their way across the plate.

UL Lafayette answered back with an RBI single from reigning Sun Belt player of the week Daniella Chavez, but the Trojan defense was able to prevent any more damage through the fourth inning.

The Ragin' Cajuns posted two back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the fifth from Haley Hayden and Aleah Craighton to take a 3-1 lead.

For Troy, Cassidy McDilda went 1-for-1 at the plate, while Hartley went 1-for-3 with one hit and one RBI with her solo home run.

In the circle, Claire Graves earned her 17^th start and put in 4.2 innings of work, throwing two strikeouts and allowed three earned runs. Meg Willis came in as relief to work the Trojans out of a jam in the bottom of the fifth. She did not allow the Ragin' Cajuns to get another hit.

Game two: Troy 0, ULL 11
UL Lafayette defeated Troy 11-0 in five innings in game two.

The Ragin' Cajuns put up four runs off of five hits in the first inning before the Trojan defense was able to get out of the inning.

UL Lafayette scored two more runs in the second inning after a two-run home run from Aleah Craighton. In the third inning, the nation's home run leader, DJ Sanders hit a grand slam to take an 11-0 lead.

Katie Webb got the Trojans' first hit in the top of the fifth with a single to left field, and Grace Mirly got on base with a fielder's choice, but Webb got out on the play. Cassidy McDilda followed with Troy's second base hit of the game to put two Troy runners on base.

Brooke Echols entered the game to pinch hit for Logan Calhoun and got on base with another fielder's choice. With two outs, Carli Kayler battled through nine pitches, but UL Lafayette's seventh strikeout of the game gave the Ragin' Cajuns their 11^th straight conference win.

Meg Willis got her second career start in the circle and was relieved by Peyton Glover after one inning. Glover threw 1.2 innings before Graves made her second appearance of the day to close out the game. Glover and Graves each threw one strikeout in game two. Willis now moves to 1-2 on the season.

NOTEWORTHY
• Becca Hartley leads the team in batting average (.347), slugging percentage (.785), on base percentage (.477), runs scored (36), hits (42), RBIs (35), home runs (14) and total bases (95).

• Hartley is just two home runs shy of tying Hannah Day for the third place single season record.

• Katie Webb made her first base debut today. Maddie Porter played third and Erica Davis played second.

UP NEXT
Troy will close out the series against the Ragin' Cajuns on Sunday at noon before returning home to host ULM on Friday and Saturday, April 14 and 15.

For more on Troy softball, visit TroyTrojans.com and follow @TroyAthletics and @TroyTrojansSB on Twitter.