Softball: UL softball was supported long before sport gained popularity

Kevin Foote, The Advertiser, May 18, 2015

 

UL Samantha Walsh, who hit the game-ending home run against Baylor, celebrates with fans following the second of two games Sunday, May 17, 2015, during the NCAA Regional Softball Tournament at Lamson Park in Lafayette, La. UL won 9-1.(Photo: Leslie Westbrook, The Advertiser, Leslie Westbrook, The Advertiser)

 

 

It’s the signature song that best describes the sentiment.

In 1981, Barbara Mandrell released the single, "I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool."

Ironically, the UL softball program began that very same year under the direction of Yvette Girouard.

He didn’t use those exact words or directly refer to Mandrell’s old hit song during his weekly press conference Monday. For all I know, UL coach Michael Lotief might even hate the song.

But that indeed was one of the hidden and not-so-hidden messages delivered loud and clear by Lotief on the day after his No. 11-ranked Ragin‘ Cajuns advanced to the Super Regionals for the sixth time in the last eight years.

First, Lotief played the old Sesame Street game, "Which one of these is not like the other …"

He read off the other 15 Division I college softball programs that advanced to the Super Regionals. Half of them are from the SEC and the other half includes the likes of UCLA, Arizona, Oregon, Oklahoma, Florida State, North Carolina State and Michigan.

The message was clear. It’s been that way for a while now, but this year’s group makes it as evident as ever. Fast-pitch softball is now a big-money sport.

No, I’m not suggesting that it makes big money, like football or basketball, but the programs from the power conferences that began putting money into the sport 10-12-15 years ago have clearly taken over.

With the exception of the UL Ragin‘ Cajuns, that is.

That’s where Lotief’s message was a little more hidden. The claim and the assumption by many of this softball program’s critics as the power conferences began throwing up fancy new stadiums like blow-up dolls was that the Cajuns would soon fall by the wayside.

Perhaps in time those cynics will be right. Only time will tell, but that’s certainly not the case of late. If anything, you can make the argument that UL softball is getting better, enjoying even more consistency.

As impressive as UL’s history is in this sport, in no other stretch has it ever won regional crowns six times in eight years.

And while it’s true that the old six-team regional format was tougher to win, I also believe that because of all the money the power leagues have sunk into softball, the 30th and 40th and 50th best teams in the country today are a lot closer to the elite teams than back in the 1990s.

"The community, this university, this program did it long before there were any (TV) cameras watching," Lotief said. "I’m so proud to be associated with that."

In other words, softball was important here and supported here long before ESPN identified it as a viable option.

In fact, that’s one of the wisest decisions we’ve made in all my 32 years of working in the sports department at the Daily Advertiser. Back in the 1980s, we saw the potential in baseball and softball.

Despite being in the Deep South where football can be a tyrannical king and men’s basketball was such a huge part of this athletic department’s past glories, we made UL softball and baseball front page sports when the vast majority of papers around the country were briefing them.

All those who have grasped the excitement in the past decade or so have certainly been more than welcomed and have made huge impressions when the Cajuns are on national TV, but it still does my heart good when I hear a ‘Dorsey Steamer’ reference, or someone who talks about Stefni (Whitton) the pitcher, not Stefni (Lotief) the coach.

The other not-so-advertised statement made over the weekend came in a postgame press conference when Lotief joked that he’s beginning to figure this NCAA Regional stuff out.

The message there was that playing at home is a huge advantage, especially at a place like Lamson Park.

For so many years, we had to write columns bashing the NCAA selection committee for undervaluing UL’s program and for unfairly not giving the Cajuns the same "Blue Blood" treatment that similar gropus were giving other longtime powers in other sports.

Suddenly, the RPI has been adjusted to not as harshly penalize teams just because they’re in a mid-major conference, and what has happened?

Not too surprisingly, the Pac 10 programs that hosted forever suddenly found themselves traveling two time zone and repeatedly not making it out of NCAA Regional play.

Instead of being low-balled like this program was for years, now UL is hosting here and there and now is piling up NCAA Regional hardware.

We’ll never know how many more regionals titles UL would have won if the current system was in play decades before.

In the end, none of this will mean much once the 2015 Ragin‘ Cajuns hit the field to meet the Auburn Tigers on Friday afternoon to begin NCAA Super Regional play.

But they’re all points worth reminding some and informing others as UL softball continues to build upon its remarkable legacy in the sport.