SAN MARCOS – The six-seed Coastal Carolina Chanticleers (38-20) fell to the one-seed Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns (49-4) by the score of 5-2 on Friday afternoon at the 2019 Sun Belt Championship at Bobcat Stadium.
 
Keeli Milligan gave the Ragin' Cajuns a first-inning 1-0 lead as she reached base on an error by Chanticleer shortstop Alexis Alvino. After Julie Rawls was hit with a pitch from CCU starter Kaitlin Beasley-Polko, Milligan would move to third on a steal and then scored on a fielder's choice groundout by Raina O'Neal.
 
Coastal would take the lead off Sun Belt Pitcher of the Year Summer Ellison in the bottom of the first inning as sophomore Stavi Augur led off with a single which was followed by junior's Kassidy Smith 15th home run of the season to give the Chanticleers a 2-1 lead.
 
With two outs in the top of the fourth, the Cajuns picked up two runs on an Alissa Dalton two-run single up the middle off Beasley-Polko to retake the lead by the score of 3-2.
 
In the top of the fifth, Louisiana leadoff hitter Sarah Hudek hit her 11th home run of the season off Beasley-Polko to make it 4-2.
 
After the home run, Coastal went to senior Ashley Guillette out of the bullpen. Guillette has been sharp all weekend but in the fifth, the senior would walk her first batter in Milligan. Milligan took two bases on the ensuing batter when she moved to second base on a steal and then moved over to third base on the throwing error by catcher Samantha Sack. The Cajuns then extended their lead to 5-2 on a Guillette wild pitch.
 
The Chants rallied in the bottom of the sixth as they got a walk from freshman Mackenzie Beyer and singles by seniors Alvino and Natalie David to load the bases off Ellison. With two outs, the Louisiana ace struck out CCU freshman Abbey Montoya to end the rally to keep the score at 5-2.
 
Louisiana's Ellison would go on to pitch a scoreless seventh inning to pick up her 36th win of the season. The junior struck out eight Chanticleers on 102 pitches in her seven innings of work.
 
CCU's David went 2-for-3 on the day with two singles. So far in the 2019 Sun Belt Tournament, the Evansville, Ind., native is batting .454 (5-for-11) with two home runs and five RBI.

Beasley-Polko took the loss and drops to 23-13. The Leonardtown, Md., native pitched four innings, allowed two hits, gave up four runs, one earned. Guillette continued her strong pitching as she came in the fifth inning and finished the game as she went three innings, allowed a run, no runs earned with two strikeouts.
 
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