Cajuns Wrap Up Regular Season Play at Middle Tennessee

Friday, May 7, 2004

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – The 9th-ranked Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns softball team (48-6, 14-0 Sun Belt) will put the finishing touches on its 23rd straight winning season and fourth straight Sun Belt regular season title here with a four-game Sun Belt Conference series against host-Middle Tennessee Saturday-Sunday, May 8-9 at Lady Raider Field.

The four-game set with Middle Tennessee (31-17, 11-5 Sun Belt) will mark the end of the 2004 regular season for both teams. The Sun Belt Conference Tournament will be held Thursday-Saturday, May 13-15 in Lafayette at Ragin' Cajuns Softball Park.

Doubleheaders are slated for 1 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday.

The Cajuns have already sewn up the league title, the program's fourth straight crown, but have the opportunity to do something that has yet to be accomplished in the four-year history of the league – finish the regular season with an unbeaten record.

Louisiana-Lafayette enters the series with a 14-0 league record through its first four series and could run the table with a sweep of the Lady Raiders. MT, hoping for its highest finish since joining the league in 2001, could plummet down to fourth place if the Cajuns record a sweep.

UL Lafayette enters the series with MT riding a seven-game win streak after posting a rare tripleheader sweep of Western Kentucky last Sunday. After having Saturday's games rained out, the two teams completed the first game started on Saturday and then played the regularly scheduled twinbill shortly after.

The Cajuns have played well on the road this season, having lost just once on the opposition's home field. Louisiana-Lafayette has won 13 straight games on an opponent's home turf and sports a 17-1 record. Combined with a 12-2 neutral site mark, the Cajuns are 29-3 away from Lafayette this season.

Middle Tennessee will be playing its second Sun Belt series at home and just the 13th-16th home games of the season. The Lady Raiders had won nine straight games overall before dropping a doubleheader at FIU last Saturday. MT enters the series with the Cajuns having won 19-of-24 games.

The two programs are quite familiar with one another. They have met 16 times in the past three seasons and both met for the 2001 and 2002 SBC Tournament crowns with the Cajuns prevailing each time.

The Cajuns lead the series 16-0 and are making their second trip to Murfreesboro since the Lady Raiders joined the Sun Belt. The Cajuns outscored the Lady Raiders 30-10 the last trip to Murfreesboro, as they cruised by wins of 3-0, 7-3, 11-6, 9-1 (5 innings) when Brooke Mitchell was a freshman.

The weekend series could be a preview of a quarterfinal matchup in the Sun Belt Tournament. If the Cajuns sweep, Middle Tennessee will in all likelihood fall to the No. 4 seed and into the Cajuns half of the bracket.

Finishing unbeaten in Sun Belt play is just one of several milestones that could possibly occur this weekend.

UL Lafayette head coach Stefni Lotief is just four wins away from 200 in her career. A four-game sweep of the Lady Raiders would accomplish the feat. Her 100th career win came against MT in the 2002 Sun Belt Tournament championship game.

As a team, Louisiana-Lafayette is five home runs away from establishing a new program record. The Cajuns have hit 75 home runs through 54 games this season. The current record was 79, set last season. When the Cajuns do break the record it would mark the third straight season that the home run record has been eclipsed. Five home runs would also make the 2004 team the first-ever to notch 80 home runs in a season.

The Cajuns are two wins shy of 50 this season. A pair of wins Saturday would give Louisiana-Lafayette its 50th of the season which would mark the third 50-win season under Stefni Lotief and sixth in program history. Since 1999, the Cajuns have posted 50-plus wins four times (54 in 1999, 51 in 2001, 50 in 2002).

The matchup also features two of the candidates for Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year. UL Lafayette's Brooke Mitchell, a Top 10 finalist for the USA Softball National Player of the Year Award, and MT's Cortney Mitchell, the nation's leader in doubles per game, are both in the running for the SBC's top athlete.

THE CAJUNS-LADY RAIDERS SERIES...Louisiana-Lafayette leads 16-0
The series began in 2001 when Middle Tennessee joined the Sun Belt Conference - moving over from the Ohio Valley Conference

This weekend's series will mark games No. 17-20 between the two schools and is the Cajuns second visit to Murfreesboro, Tenn.

The series has some historical value to it. When it began on March 30, 2001 at Ragin' Cajuns Softball Park, it marked the first-ever Sun Belt softball game in the history of the league. UL Lafayette won that game 2-1 in eight innings and went on to sweep the inaugural SBC series.

Later on in 2001, the two teams would meet each other twice in the Sun Belt Tournament in Las Cruces, N.M. The Cajuns handed the Lady Raiders a 6-5 defeat in the semifinals before taking the championship game the very next day with a 6-4 win.

In April 2002, the Cajuns made their first-ever trek to Murfreesboro, Tenn., and swept the weekend set once more. The Cajuns outscored the Blue Raiders 30-10 as they cruised by wins of 3-0, 7-3, 11-6, 9-1 (5 innings).

History repeated itself in the 2002 conference tournament in Miami - the two teams met once more for the championship. Before the title game, the two met in UL Lafayette's tournament opener as the Cajuns prevailed 1-0. Louisiana-Lafayette then made it 12 straight over MT with a 6-0 win in the title game.

Last season marked the first time the two teams did not meet in SBC Tournament action. MT traveled to Lafayette for a weekend set April 5-6, 2003, with the Cajuns posting a four-game sweep to remain perfect all-time vs. the Lady Raiders and extend their win streak in the series to 16 games.

THE CAJUNS-LADY RAIDERS SERIES GAME-BY-GAME
In Lafayette: Cajuns lead 8-0
In Murfreesboro: Cajuns lead 4-0
On a Neutral Field: Cajuns lead 4-0

March 30, 2001 - @Cajuns 2, Lady Raiders 1 (8 innings)
March 31, 2001 - @Cajuns 8, Lady Raiders 0 (6 innings)
March 31, 2001 - @Cajuns 4, Lady Raiders 3
April 1, 2001 - @Cajuns 5, Lady Raiders 3
#May 12, 2001 - Cajuns 6, Lady Raiders 5 (SBC Tour. Semifinals)
#May 13, 2001 - Cajuns 6, Lady Raiders 4 (SBC Tour. Finals)
April 13, 2002 - Cajuns 3, @Lady Raiders 0
April 13, 2002 - Cajuns 7, @Lady Raiders 3
April 14, 2002 - Cajuns 11, @Lady Raiders 6
April 14, 2002 - Cajuns 9, @Lady Raiders 1 (5 innings)
$May 9, 2002 - Cajuns 1, Lady Raiders 0 (SBC Tour. Quarters)
$May 11, 2002 - Cajuns 6, Lady Raiders 0 (SBC Tour. Finals)
April 5, 2003 - @Cajuns 12, Lady Raiders 4
April 5, 2003 - @Cajuns 5, Lady Raiders 0
April 6, 2003 - @Cajuns 10, Lady Raiders 0 (5 innings)
April 6, 2003 - @Cajuns 6, Lady Raiders 3
# Sun Belt Tournament - Las Cruces, N.M.
$ Sun Belt Tournament - Miami, Fla.

-LOUISIANA'S RAGIN' CAJUNS-

University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics

Cajuns Wrap Up Regular Season Play at Middle Tennessee

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