Softball: Storybook ending for Smith, Cajuns at Sun Belt Tourney

Tim Buckley, The Advertiser, May 14, 2016

 

The No. 9 Ragin’ Cajuns earned a 12-0 victory over Texas State in Saturday afternoon’s title game of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament at Jaguar Field.(Photo: Sun Belt Conference)

 

MOBILE, Ala. — UL softball coach Michael Lotief called it a “fairytale” story.

For pitcher Macey Smith and the No. 9 Ragin’ Cajuns, a 12-0 victory over Texas State in Saturday afternoon’s title game of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament at Jaguar Field here was magical indeed.

“Just think about this: A year ago, she didn’t even make the roster to be in the dugout,” Lotief said of Smith, a product of Stratford High in Houston who made seven appearances in 2014 but none last season. “Now she’s throwing a no-hitter, in the championship game.”

The twist in this tale is that Smith was in the circle for all 15 outs recorded by UL on Saturday — but she didn’t even start the game, which ended by run-rule after four-and-a-half innings.

Between that and a crop of Cajun bats that produced 10 hits, including a two-run triple and a grand slam by centerfielder Aleah Craighton, who was named Most Outstanding Player of the tourney, almost everything Lotief’s club touched Saturday seemed golden.

So now UL, which has won 13 Sun Belt tourney titles, awaits its NCAA Tournament assignment, which will come Sunday night.

“They stood strong today,” Lotief said of his 43-7 Cajuns, “and they’re champions, and they’re proud, and they deserve it.”

“It feels really good to win,” Craighton added. “We work so hard every day to be the best we can. And we go through struggles. And we go through failures. Just to come out here and compete anyways and find a way through — it is always great.”

UL’s latest title came in convincing fashion, but also in a rather wacky manner.

Usual No. 1 Alex Stewart started for the Cajuns, but after walking leadoff Kelli Baker on five pitches — at least two of which were called illegal — she was lifted in favor of Smith.

Smith also threw 2.0 relief innings during UL’s 9-7 tourney game against Texas State on Friday, when Stewart was called for multiple illegal pitches.

“My mind said to start Macey,” Lotief said. “Alex wanted a shot.

“I was gonna see how the umpires were gonna interpret the rule, and then there was no doubt in my mind. When he called it (illegal) first pitch, I almost changed right there.”

Smith, now 3-0 with a 0.52 ERA, had thrown just 21.2 innings over 12 appearances this season.

Prior to Saturday, three other Cajun pitchers — Stewart, now-injured Kylee Jo Trahan and Victoria Brown — all had thrown more innings than her in 2016.

Stressful for Smith?

On one hand, it was.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous,” she said.

On the other, it was all in a day’s work.

“We always preach playing free,” Smith said, “so I feel like that whenever I was called on it was just another thing that we’re supposed to do.”

A bond with her teammates, Smith suggested, helped.

“It becomes fun when you’re playing with them. You’re playing with your sisters; you’re playing with your best friends,” she said. “It’s not a game anymore. It’s something you love to do together. … No matter what role I have, it’s just great to play with them.”

Smith suggested she did nothing special Saturday to get, or be, prepared for, oh, throwing a no-hitter (technically a combined one with Stewart).

“Just like any other pregame, we’re always ready, no matter what,” she said.

“We’re kind of always putting ourselves into the situations of the game, and then, if we’re called on to do it, we’re ready, because we’ve been putting ourselves in those situations.

So Lotief did not hesitate to call her name.

“Macey’s a good matchup against them,” he said. “That kid — she showed a lot of courage. She did. Especially the first inning, when she came in and she made (an) error right away (against the first batter she faced).”

Smith quickly found herself with one out and runners on second and third.

Three hitters later, however, she was back in the dugout.

“She got out and that,” Lotief said, “and then she basically sailed from there.”

Cajuns hitters, meanwhile, took care of business.

Craighton’s two-run triple — she was thrown out at the plate on the play — came in the first inning.

Shellie Landry doubled in the third to score Haley Haden, and Kelsey Vincent followed later in the same inning with a two-run homer.

Kelli Martinez singled in Kendall Smith to open a seven-run fourth, Lexie Elkins delivered a bases-loaded single to make it 7-0 and two batters later Craighton nailed her grand slam.

DJ Sanders added a solo homer for good measure, and by run rule Texas State had only another half-inning of at-bats to keep the game alive.

The Bobcats, however, came up dry in the top of the fifth.

“I love the way the hitters were locked in this weekend — really, the last two or three weekends,” Lotief said.

What he loved even more after going 3-0 in the SBC tourney, though, was the book authored by Smith.

“It’s a kid,” he said, “who has done it the right way.”