Kevin Foote’s Blog: UL softball team something to behold

Kevin Foote, Daily Advertiser, April 11, 2012

This UL Ragin’ Cajuns softball team is really something.
Just when it looked like you just couldn’t get their hitters out, the lineup goes in a slump.
And amazingly, just about that time, the pitching goes from a little bit scary at times to an entire weekend of not giving up a single run.
So that means the offense is in a slump, right? Well, not really. In game one of Tuesday’s Sun Belt Conference doubleheader at FIU, freshman pitcher Jordan Wallace gave up four runs in the bottom of the third inning to seize a 5-2 lead over the Cajuns.
Not only did UL overcome that deficit but it ran away from the homestanding Golden Panthers with a 10-5 win.
The team is talented and yet achieves results largely due to some overachieving virtually unrecruited performers and extra hard work by everyone on the team.
The team is super intense and determined to succeed, but while that’s true there’s just enough goofiness in some of them to keep the team loose and ready to go.
At times, it’s almost like the team is made up of a bunch of robots, who have been programmed to treat each opponent as dangerous, no matter what the record is, and to treat each inning like it’s the most important frame of the season.
And yet, they show enough raw emotion and enthusiasm at times to reveal the fact that yes, they are actually human.
Indeed, this Cajun softball team has got to be off to the best 35-game start in UL athletic history. And yet they’ll all tell you that they’re not a perfect team and will on occasion clearly display that on the field.
But that same team that looks sloppy at times, will quickly respond to the challenge and deliver under pressure with dramatic flair when it’s really needed.
Just when you think the slappers are too finesse, they pound one into the outfield. Just when you think the power hitters are too one-dimensional, the clean-up hitter will lay down a sacrifice bunt at the perfect time.
Talk to coach Michael Lotief and he’ll tell you that at his core he thinks 1-0 is the way to play college softball. But have his team win 1-0 and you can tell it’s eating him up inside that his hitters only scored one run.
It’s just a peculiar group of players, coaches, talents and personalities that make up what may just go down as one of the most storied teams in UL athletic history.
Almost nothing would surprise me about this group, except for the fact that it won’t answer the bell when it rings for real.