For the first time since 2016, the blue circular NCAA logo has been plastered on every surface of Yvette Girouard Field at Lamson Park as the Louisiana Ragin Cajuns host an NCAA Softball Regional this weekend.
Baylor (Big 12), Ole Miss (SEC), and Princeton (Ivy League) will all come to Acadiana to battle with one goal in mind: being one of the final 16 teams to advance to the Super Regionals on Memorial Day Weekend.
Playing in a regional has become second nature for the Cajuns: the program plays in their 25th consecutive NCAA Tournament. However, this is the first time under head coach Gerry Glasco that the team is hosting a regional. In 2023, Louisiana traveled across the Atchafalaya Basin to Baton Rouge, battling with Omaha, Prairie View A&M, and LSU before taking down the Tigers on Championship Sunday to advance to their first Super Regional under Glasco.
Now in 2024, the Cajuns are excited to be the home team.
“Super excited to play and get back out on the field in front of our crowd,” Glasco said. “Super excited to see the competition with three really good teams Princeton, Baylor, and Ole Miss. I know the girls are really excited. For some of them, it’s their first postseason for a lot of them their second postseason, it’s an exciting time in our program. It’ll be the first time that we’ve held a regional here at Lamson Park for all the kids and myself. So we’re really looking forward to just getting out on the field and performing.”
To say the Cajuns’ season has been a roller coaster would be an understatement. After starting the season 8-9 through the first month, Louisiana traveled to the newly-opened Love’s Field on the campus of Oklahoma University to play in the Norman Invitational. The weekend began with losses to the Sooners and Miami (OH) before splitting two games with Liberty. Finally, the Cajuns battled Oklahoma again and were able to snap the Sooners’ 81-game win streak as Louisiana picked up a 7-5 win in eight innings.
Since then, Glasco’s squad has gone 32-5, with two of those losses coming in non-conference play and two other losses coming to Texas State, to finish as the regular season Sun Belt Champions for the fifth season in a row. Louisiana didn’t capture their fifth consecutive tournament title after falling to the Bobcats for the second time in 2024 during the conference title game.
However, the Cajuns feel that the uphill battles and falling short in the conference championship have better prepared them for this moment.
“I think it was really important,” Pitcher Sam Landry said. “We have a new hitting coach (Shellie Landry), a new defensive coach this year (Hunter Veach) and I think a lot of the struggles at the beginning of the year was learning that and learning to get everything they wanted for us up to the speed of the game. I think that the struggles we did have are very important because they showed us how it needs to be.”
“Now we’re the number one team in the nation in double plays and I feel like without the struggle in the beginning, we may not have had that push that we have now,” Landry continued. “I think it was very important. It definitely made us the team we are now and to be able to come back in any game if we’re behind. I think the loss in the championship (Texas State) is actually very important for our team as well just to show that you know, everybody’s out for you and that we can bounce back from that and that we just have to stay focused and do what we know how to do.”
Being the 13th overall seed means that if the Cajuns can overcome the Tigers, Bears, and Rebels (oh my), they will advance to the Super Regional and be paired with the winner of the 4th place regional with Florida, South Alabama, Florida Atlantic, and Florida Gulf Coast on Memorial Day Weekend. Last season, Louisiana traveled to Seattle to play Washington in the Super Regional, falling 2-0 in that series.
There’s no question that Louisiana is prepared for the moment of playing on the massive stage that is the NCAA Tournament, but with the tough competition coming to town as well as the factor that the elements will become, can the Cajuns continue to overcome adversity and persevere to the next round?