Click here and croll to the bottom for a photo gallery from the final game of the NCAA Lafayette Regional.

Ragin’ Cajuns’ Brenn Conrad holds his head down during a team prayer after the team’s 3-1 loss to the Arizona Wildcats in the NCAA Baseball Lafayette Regional championship at Tigue Field June 6, 2016.(Photo: LEE CELANO/THE ADVERTISER)

It was a long tournament weekend for Cajuns fans, some of whom had been tailgating since Thursday. They outlasted multiple rain delays and scorching heat. But they are a hardy bunch.

At times during Game 6 on Monday afternoon, The Tigue was eerily quiet. Maybe it was the heat, which reached the low 90s but felt like 100. Maybe it was because some fans couldn’t get out of work to attend the game. But it didn’t help that the Cajuns struggled early, falling to a 6-0 to the Arizona Wildcats before losing 6-3 and forcing a Game 7.

Fans rallied Monday night. They were loud and proud as they belted out "Centerfield" during the seventh-inning stretch. They sang players’ walk-up songs, despite the fact that there was no music.

That game — the last before the old Tigue undergoes a multi-million dollar renovation — didn’t finish the way the team or the fans would have liked. The Cajuns’ season ended with a 3-1 loss to the Wildcats.

No matter the outcome, Lafayette made an impression over the weekend on visitors from Arizona, as well as Sam Houston State and Princeton.

ESPN reporter Pedro Gomez, whose son is a pitcher for the Wildcats, tweeted about his experience:

“Met a few locals and feel like family. Incredibly welcoming and sharing to us @ArizonaBaseball parents.”
“Rajin Cajuns Tailgaters made @ArizonaBaseball parents feel like family, and then UofA players. A huge thank you!”

Scott Bradley, Princeton’s head baseball coach, was excited to have his team play at The Tigue. And despite his team’s two-and-out performance, he said, the experience didn’t disappoint.

“I’ve played in a lot of places — Baton Rouge, South Carolina, Arkansas,” Bradley said. “This is a special place. That’s as fun a baseball environment as I’ve ever been in.”

That environment hasn’t escaped the NCAA, which on May 20 ranked UL among the top five baseball fan bases in the country.

Jerry Price, who writes for the official blog for Princeton athletics, summed it up like this:

"TigerBlog has been to a lot of college sporting events. He’s been to a ton of big-time college basketball venues and to quaint, historic and tradition-laden stops all throughout the country," Price wrote. "He has never seen anything like the seventh-inning stretch at UL."

Price had been hoping Princeton would draw a Regional at Ole Miss or Mississippi, both of which are known for their boisterous baseball environments.

But after his experience in Lafayette, he was left wondering how those places could offer anything better.

"It was one of the single best events TigerBlog has been to in his nearly 30 years of following Princeton sports."

Even after the heartbreaking loss in Game 7, senior outfielder Kyle Clement had this to say: "I think we have the greatest fans in the country, and I stick by that."

It wasn’t the season ending the Cajuns or their fans wanted. Wasn’t how they would have scripted the last series at The Tigue as they know it.

But next year, in a beautiful new stadium, there will be baseball. And Cajuns fans will no doubt fill it with their passion for the sport, their hospitality and their undying loyalty to those who wear the fleur-de-lis.