BATON ROUGE – No. 18 LSU extended the NCAA Softball Baton Rouge Regional to a winner-take-all contest on Monday with a 6-1 win over 14th-ranked Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns Softball late Sunday evening at Tiger Park.
 
The Ragin' Cajuns (47-7) and Tigers (44-19) will meet at 1 p.m. on Monday with a trip to the NCAA Tallahassee Super Regional up for grabs. Louisiana will seek to advance to the NCAA Super Regional round for the sixth consecutive season.
 
"I believe we're ready," Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns Softball head coach Michael Lotief said. "It's just like a super regional, best two out of three: we've got one, and they've got one.
 
"I like the way our kids competed," Lotief added. "They're fighters, and I expect them to fight tomorrow."
 
Emily Griggs was 4-for-4 at the plate and Sahvanna Jaquish and Amber Serrett combined for five RBI to lead the LSU offense. Carly Hoover struck out six and yielded just five hits in the complete game victory.
 
Kara Gremillion was the Ragin' Cajuns leading hitter with a 2-for-4 performance which extended her streak of consecutive games reaching base to 46.
 
Alex Stewart started and worked two-plus innings allowing three runs. She gained valuable rest for Monday's matchup as Alyssa Denham and Summer Ellyson combined to pitch the final five innings in relief.
 
The Tigers took advantage of back-to-back hit batsmen to start the second inning. Serrett later executed a squeeze bunt to score Shemiah Sanchez for a 1-0 lead.
 
Jaquish stretched the LSU lead to 3-0 in the third inning with a two-run home run off of Stewart. Denham retired the first three batters as her relief appearance began, ending the Tigers rally.
 
Denham limited the Tigers to an RBI single from Serrett in the fourth inning in keeping the deficit manageable moving to the sixth inning. A pair of two-out, run-scoring hits – a Serrett home run and Griggs single – upped the hosts advantage to 6-0.
 
Louisiana got traffic in its final two at bats. Hoover escaped unscathed after runners were on the corners in the sixth inning, however a two-out single by Kelli Martinez in the seventh plated pinch runner Sarah Arceneaux.
 
The loss snapped the Ragin' Cajuns 15-game winning streak, which matched the season-best streak recorded from March 18-April 14, and was the first defeat in a contest of regulation length since March 9 vs. Baylor.