Softball: Cajuns earn No. 14 overall seed

Kevin Foote, The Advertiser, May 15, 2016

 

The UL Ragin’ Cajuns softball team earned a No. 14 overall seed and will be hosting Texas, Texas A&M and Boston University beginning Friday at Lamson Park.(Photo: Sun Belt Conference)

 

All the numbers say that the UL Ragin’ Cajuns softball program has been there and done that.

Still, even veterans like seniors Shellie Landry and Lexie Elkins get a little extra fired up come NCAA Regional time.

That duo and the rest of the recently-crowned Sun Belt Conference champions mixed smiles with raw determination Sunday night when discussing their path to the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City.

For the third straight season and the fourth time in the past five years that road will begin at Lamson Park. The Cajuns drew a No. 14 overall seed and will be hosting a field that includes Texas, Texas A&M and Boston University.

If the seeds play out, UL would then travel to No. 3 Oklahoma in the Super Regional round.

The Cajuns will open at 6 p.m. Friday on ESPNU against the Terriers (28-22), while the Aggies (37-18) and Longhorns (37-14) will square off at 3:30 p.m. Friday on ESPN2.

“It’s always an exciting time of the year,” Landry said. “We’re very excited to be at home. It’s a lot of fun. This is the best time of the year.”

The NCAA appearance is the 18th consecutive for UL’s program and the 26th overall over the last 27 years, which is good enough for eighth all-time. UL has an overall record of 56-32 in NCAA regional, including a recent mark of 22-5 in advancing to the NCAA Super Regionals in six of the past eight years.

“It’s difficult to be a top 16 seed,” UL coach Michael Lotief said. “In the early years, we were road warriors. We’ve kind of gotten a little spoiled (in hosting Regionals).”

It’s the four national seed in the past five seasons – No. 14 in 2012, No. 6 in 2014 and No. 13 in 2015.

“I don’t know anything about the matchups yet,” Lotief said. “I’m sure we’ll go to work on that tonight.”

The Texas ties will be interesting with the Cajuns always having a healthy dose of Lone Star State natives on the roster, not to mention associate head coach Chris Malveaux is a 2001 graduate of Texas A&M.

It should really be an interesting weekend for Elkins, whose “best friend” is Longhorns’ senior outfielder Lindsey Stephens.

“It’ll be fun, but once we hit the field, it’ll be pitch-by-pitch,” Elkins said.

Really making this upcoming weekend exciting for Elkins is having this past weekend under her belt as she returned from six weeks out with a broken thumb.

“It felt great,” she said. “Every day its gets better. I’m just glad my teammates had my back this weekend.”

The other interesting aspect of the Cajuns (43-7) is the emergence of Macey Smith this past weekend, finishing off the Sun Belt title with five no-hit innings.

“It’s always good to have another option in the circle,” Lotief said.

“But we still have some work to do. We have some things that need fixing.”

Being able to play at home should be a huge lift for the Cajuns. Lotief suggested as much as a three-run difference. Attendance was at an all-time high this past season with a school-record average of 1,718 fans.