Baseball buzz: Check out these close-cropped Cajuns

Tim Buckley, The Advertiser, May 27, 2016

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An exclusive behind-the-scenes look at UL baseball players goofing off before Fan Day 2016. Advertiser video by Kristin Askelson and Scott Clause.

University of Louisiana at Lafayette batter Brenn Conrad shows of his hair cut "the Fade" after hitting a double against Arkansas State during their game in the Sun Belt Baseball Championship at Bobcat Stadium Wednesday May 25, 2015 in San Marcos, Texas.

(Photo: Brad Kemp/RaginCajuns.com, Brad Kemp/RaginCajuns.com)

Members of UL’s 58-10 Super Regional team from 2014 had their bushy beards, grown out to caveman proportion during a lengthy run. The crazy kids on the Ragin’ Cajuns’ 2000 College World Series club dyed their hair blond.

This year?

Fresh haircuts evidently are the bond that the Cajuns, who claimed an SBC co-championship, are carrying into the 2016 postseason.

“We all got a nice fade haircut,” Cajuns senior infielder Stefan Trosclair said after UL beat in-state rival ULM for a 19th straight time to overtake South Al for top seed in the tourney that began with a UL win Wednesday night over No. 8 seed Arkansas State. The Cajuns next play Texas State at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

“So we’re gonna try to roll with it into the playoffs – ride this wave we’ve got going,” he added, “and keep playing hard.”

Fades are clipped quite close on the sides and back, then taper to various lengths up top.

The haircut idea, according to Trosclair, came about when a few guys initially got their locks chopped.

“Then we all just kind of came together,” he said, “and said, ‘Let’s all do it.’ And we all did it.”

The last holdout?

Locks flow out of the cap on UL pitcher Wyatt Marks (31), who is shown here grimacing after giving up a two-run homer by LSU’s Jake Fraley during the third inning of a game at the 2015 Baton Rouge Super Regional. (Photo: Gerald Herbert, AP)

According to Trosclair it was sophomore pitcher Wyatt Marks, a St. Thomas More product who until this weekend sported quite a mop up top.

Sitting for the scissors was more painful for Marks, fellow pitcher Evan Guillory guessed, than it was for anyone on the UL roster.

“It took us a while to convince him,” Guillory said with a laugh. “But I figured he would do it eventually, because he’s a team player.

“But,” Guillory added, “he (also) loves his hair.”

The tight-and-trim Cajuns are in San Marcos looking to defend the conference tourney championship they won in 2015 by coming through the loser’s bracket and finishing with a title-game win over South Alabama in Troy, Alabama.

UL also is seeking its fourth straight NCAA Regional appearance, third straight Super Regional berth and first trip to the College World Series since the bleach-blond bunch went to Omaha in 2000.

To do it as Sun Belt co-champs is satisfying indeed for the Cajuns, who after losing the first outing of their three-game series at South Alabama earlier this month did not at all appear likely to lay claim to the SBC Tournament’s No. 1 seed.

With five games to go, they were four games out of first in the Sun Belt standings.

Even thinking it was possible to catch No. 23 South Al might have been hair-brained to some.

But the 37-19 Cajuns pulled off the improbable off anyway.

“It shows our competitiveness on the field, and how hard we play,” Trosclair said. “We’re grinders, man. That’s our motto, and we’ve got to stick with it.”