“We just have to weather this storm, like Coach (Robichaux) used to say. We’ll get our guys back, we’ll weather this thing, and we’ll be ready when the game comes back around because it always does.”
When you reach the halfway point of a season, you look back at the first half of it. What you did well, what didn’t go well, and the ways that you can improve. Sometimes, you find yourself comparing the record this year compared to previous seasons and thinking “are we on the right path?”
The Louisiana Ragin Cajuns have had a strong start to the baseball season, racking up a 25-12 record and still have key series with #10 Coastal Carolina and #24 Southern Miss to come.
How does this record at this date in April compare to the previous seasons with Matt Deggs as head coach? Let’s find out.
2020 was Deggs’ first year as head coach, but the pandemic shut the season down after 17 games. So it’s hard to make a judgment call on that season. However, after starting 2-9, they did rally to be 8-9 when the season was cancelled so that was a positive to build on, even though at the time there was a unknown future.
2021 was the first year that you could truly make a judgment on Matt Deggs as a head coach. At this point in April, 20-12 with a 7-2 record in the Sun Belt. Fresh off of a 16-11 loss to Arkansas State, the Cajuns got swept the next weekend in Mobile against South Alabama. They finished the season on a 12-11 record to hit 32-23, making it to the semifinals of the conference tournament.
Making it to the semifinals of the Sun Belt tournament in your first true season is something to be proud of, but you could tell after 2021 that nobody was satisfied.
2022 came around and you started to wonder if this was going to be the year. But when the team sat at 20-15 and 9-6 in the conference, things seemed unsure. However, Carson Roccaforte and Julian Brock along with great pitching from Jacob Schultz, Bo Bonds, and others helped the Cajuns finish the season on a 17-8 clip, including a magical run in Montgomery to win the SBC title. In the tournament, they took down South Alabama, conference favorite Texas State, and then defeated Georgia Southern in the title game, a year after the Eagles ended their season. Then, Deggs and the Cajuns went to the College Station regional, their first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 2016.
So far this season, the Cajuns are 25-12 on the season, 10-5 in the conference and are currently in a four-way tie for third place. Offensively the Cajuns have been strong with Heath Hood and Julian Brock leading the way. Pitching has been streaky and inconsistent, but the staff is also dealing with injuries and constantly moving parts.
Baseball is a long season, full of twists and turns, highs and lows, win streaks and slumps. This is familiar territory for the Cajuns and they know how to win in this position.
Keep the faith.