The postseason is here.
The time when the best separate themselves from the rest to decide who will be one of the eight teams in Oklahoma City for the Women’s College World Series.
When it comes to the Louisiana Ragin Cajuns, they’re looking to be one of those eight for the first time since 2014.
Before that can happen, the Sun Belt Softball Championship is ahead of them this weekend at Lamson Park.
Gerry Glasco’s team is coming off a 43-13 regular season where they captured their fourth consecutive regular season championship and are looking to defend their tournament championship for the fourth consecutive time (not counting 2020).
The Cajuns have a ton of momentum in their corner when looking at their success in the conference, winning 22 of 24 regular season Sun Belt matchups in 2023. Couple that with having the Sun Belt Player of the Year in Karly Heath, Freshman of the Year with Mihyia Davis, and seven players on the All-Sun Belt team and Louisiana looks ready to roll into hosting a regional for the first time since 2016.
Typically, the word dominance isn’t used in sports unless it belongs in the statement. With Louisiana, dominance of the Sun Belt is pretty spot on. The Cajuns haven’t lost a conference series dating back to March 2013, which gives them 81 straight series wins. Since Glasco took over the program in 2017, his teams have only lost 17 conference games in those six seasons.
Headed into their first-round matchup with ULM, Louisiana wants to ride this wave of momentum.
“We want to finish strong,” Glasco said. “You want to have momentum going into the postseason, the team feels good now that final exams are over and they want to win this tournament.”
You can write forever about the accolades that this team received in 2023, but when you look at how they’ve prepared for this tournament and beyond, look no further than the fact that Louisiana finished the regular season with the fourth toughest schedule in America.
That scheduling was done on purpose, as the Cajuns played 11 games against Top 25 opponents in the first month of the season, placing them in the Top 10 in terms of RPI heading into the tournament.
“By playing a tough schedule, it exposes your weaknesses and helps you understand how important defense is,” Glasco said in an interview earlier this week. “It gives other players the opportunity to show what they can do, as well as gives me the opportunity to see what they can do against elite pitching.”
With a lot on the line for the Ragin Cajuns, will they hold up and capture a dynastic fifth championship in a row?