Kevin Foote, The Advertiser, March 22, 2017

His response wasn’t shocking.

In fact, it was quite predictable.

Asked his thoughts on playing at old Sun Belt Conference softball rival South Alabama in desperate need of league wins after a 2-4 start for his team’s first road trip, UL coach Michael Lotief did his dead-level best to diminish the impact of the rivalry on this weekend’s series in Mobile, Alabama.

Lotief said he has no memory of anything that happened five years ago, or any other meeting between the two teams over the years. He doesn’t even remember how the two teams fared against each other last season.

For the record, the Cajuns went 2-0 against South Alabama last season. UL leads the all-time series 24-11.

Naturally, Lotief wants his team focused solely on winning another conference series, not adding its mark on the history of the Sun Belt’s best softball rivalry.

Plus, he’s also been through so much health-wise in recent years that some of those old bitter feelings can start to fade through a little more perspective.

But whereas Lotief and his team need to be focused on the next pitch and not who called that pitch or who is delivering it, the rest of us aren’t bound by such restrictions.

To me, rivalries are what make sports fun.

To me, one of the biggest missing pieces in Cajun athletics through all of this historic facility expansion over the past decade is the lack of old-school rivalries.

Growing up in these parts, it was fun to hate Billy Tubbs and the Lamar Cardinals or Tim Floyd and the UNO Privateers or Jim Gilligan and the Lamar Cardinals or Glenn Duhon and the McNeese State Cowboys.

Sure, the infamous brawl with Steve Kittrell’s South Alabama baseball Jaguars crossed way over the line, but it made the games mean more for a long time.

It added extra spice to each meeting. It’s fun when a game means more because of whom you’re playing, not just the conference standings.

And one of the few good rivalries left is UL vs. South Alabama in softball.

It’s certainly one UL softball play-by-play radio voice Steve Peloquin has enjoyed witnessing first-hand over the last decade.

“It’s always a great series that fans of both schools look forward to every year,” Peloquin said. “Whenever the two teams play, there’s just a different atmosphere. There’s more energy in the park, and therefore the players have more energy.”

It may not be a very old one, but it’s a rivalry that’s already produced some good stories and some memorable meetings.

“I remember the first time the two teams met in Sun Belt Conference play,” Peloquin said. “It was back in 2007. The Cajuns won the first game 5-4 in a hard-fought 10-inning game. The Jags won the second game 8-0, handing Louisiana its first mercy-rule loss in Sun Belt Conference play. That’s when it began.”

Since then, the Cajuns have continued to dominate the league race, but the Jaguars have emerged as the second-best program in the Sun Belt.

Each time, the Jags had a potential breakthrough series or tournament win, though, the Cajuns have answered in style. For instance, UL swept USA in 2008, outscoring the Jags 25-3.

“I think South Alabama was humbled,” Peloquin said. “They thought they would compete better, but didn’t, so they made the decision to recruit better, and became better because of it.”

South Alabama responded by winning two of three in Mobile in 2009, but UL won the next 10 meetings.

The closest thing to a UL-South Alabama baseball brawl in this softball series came in 2013, the year after the Jags nipped UL in the tournament championship game.

“That series in Mobile was memorable,” Peloquin said. “UL had a few hitters hit by pitchers. It got to the point where the two sides stood their ground and stood each other down.

“The benches didn’t clear, but let’s just say that Matte Haack took (USA pitcher Farish) Beard and all of the USA players off of her Christmas card list.”

No, it wasn’t Johnny Roseboro vs. Juan Marichal, but it hinted at it and it amped the rivalry up a notch.

“You can’t have a rivalry without both teams being successful, and these two programs have been the best in the sport of softball in the history of the conference,” Peloquin said.

So although Lotief’s comments on leaving the rivalry in the past were both understandable and logical for his team this weekend in Mobile, let’s hope the good healthy sports bitterness between the two programs doesn’t get squashed any time soon.

Cajun fans have so few of them left.