27th Annual Louisiana Classics Slated for Friday Start

27th Annual Louisiana Classics Tournament Central

Contact: Nick Ross

Game Notes

Date: February 15-17
Location: Lafayette, La.
Site: Lamson Park
Radio: ESPN 1420 (KPEL)
TV: MyKLAF (Saturday Cajuns' Games only)
Live Stats: www.ragincajuns.com
Opponents: Mississippi Valley State (1-3, 0-0 SWAC), Texas State (0-5, 0-0 WAC)
Time: 6:00 PM Friday (MVSU), 1:00 PM Saturday (Texas State), 3:30 PM Saturday (MVSU) 1:30 PM Sunday (Texas State)

WHAT'S ON TAP? The Cajuns continue their home opening weekend with the 27th Annual Louisiana Classics at Lamson Park. The Cajuns take on Mississippi Valley State on Friday at 6:00 PM and Saturday at 3:30 PM, and Texas State on Saturday at 1:00 PM and Sunday at 1:30 PM.

CAJUN UPDATE: The Cajuns powered past Mississippi State last Wednesday, defeating the Bulldogs by a score of 9-1 in a mercy-rule shortened contest. Matte Haack and Shellie Landry helped lead the Cajuns, combining for two home runs and seven RBI, while Jordan Wallace picked up her third win of the season. She now holds an ERA of 0.93 with 26 strikeouts.

MISSISSIPPI VALLEY STATE DELTA DEVILS: The Delta Devils are 1-3 on the young season, dropping games to Southeast Missouri State, Northwestern State and UC Santa Barbara, and beat Wichita State before being rained out on Sunday. The Delta Devils are the Southwestern Athletic Conference preseason favorite, and have both the SWAC Player of the Year and Pitcher of the Year in catcher Nicole Burr and pitcher Alicia Lorenz.

TEXAS STATE BOBCATS: The Bobcats started the season off on a dismal note, dropping all five games at the Houston Hilton Classic. They lost three games against the tournament host Houston, as well as one game each against Lipscomb and Iowa. The future Sun Belt foe returns all of last season's starters, including a senior class that saw back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances.

TOP OF THE CLASS: Sarah Draheim and Brianna Cherry boast almost identical stat lines coming into the Louisiana Classics. Both hold a .462 average (6-for-13) while slugging .692 and have an on-base percentage of .588.

LEADING OFF: Nerissa Myers sent the fifth pitch of the Cajuns' first at-bat over the left field wall on Saturday for an opposite field, lead-off home run to put the Cajuns on the board early. It was the first time this millennium that the Cajuns led the season off with a home run.

NO WAITING FOR WALLACE: Sophomore pitcher Jordan Wallace spent no time picking up where she left off last season, racking up three wins in her first three starts of the season. She holds a 3-0 record with a 0.93 ERA (2 er, 15.0 ip) and has sat 26 batters down by the strike out while limiting batters to just three free passes and 11 hits.

SINGLING OUT FERNANDEZ: Third baseman Natalie Fernandez led the Ragin' Cajun squad with 75 hits and a .436 average last season. All of the 75 hits were singles. Thus far in 2013 she has gone 3-for-13 with three singles. In her career, Fernandez has 113 hits, including 112 singles and one double. Her last extra base hit came on February 12, 2011 as her last 110 hits have been singles.

TAKING SOME HAACKS: Senior Matte Haack went 2-for-4 with a home run and a double on Wednesday's game against the Mississippi State Bulldogs. She also drove in a career-high five runs in the game and leads the Cajuns with eight RBI on the season. Haack drove in 56 runs with nine home runs as a junior.

NO SENIOR SLIDE: Myers, Cherry, Draheim and Haack, have combined batting average of .384 (20-for-52) and scored 18 of the teams 35 runs, while driving in 21. The foursome has also started every game as the one, two, three and four hitters, respectively.

FRESHMAN FIREPOWER: With home runs in back-to-back games, freshman Shellie Landry has found her power stride at the plate. In four games, she has batted .385 (5-for-13) with a slugging percentage of .923, adding a double to her two home runs.

STRINGING THEM TOGETHER: Senior catcher Sarah Draheim has hit safely in every game this season for the Cajuns. Draheim tied for the team lead with Brianna Cherry, holding a .462 batting average. The senior finished her first three seasons batting .250, .296 and .222, respectively.

CHANGES AT THE HELM: For the first time in 13 years, the Cajuns will start the season without a Lotief as head coach. Stefni and Michael Lotief held duties as co-head coaches for the past 10 seasons, both stepped down before the start of the 2013 season. They will be replaced by Megan Granger (Louisiana, 2012) as interim head coach. Granger is no stranger to the Ragin' Cajuns way, and saw the team post a 192-48 record in her four seasons with the team.

HOW DO THEY RANK? Louisiana is ranked 15th in both the USA Today/NFCA Coaches and the ESPN.com/USA Softball polls released on February 12th. The Ragin' Cajuns were also the unanimous selection to win the Sun Belt in the SBC preseason coaches poll.

DEFENDING CHAMPS: Louisiana will attempt to defend their throne at the top of the Sun Belt Conference, a spot they have held in 11 of the past 12 seasons, and five straight. They will also attempt to extend a streak of 14 straight NCAA Regional tournament berths.

ALL SUN BELT: Six Cajun's were named to the preseason All-Sun Belt Conference team earlier this month, the most of any team in the conference. Nerissa Myers, Brianna Cherry, Matte Haack and Sarah Draheim were among the seniors on the team, along with junior Natalie Fernandez and sophomore pitcher Jordan Wallace. Myers and Wallace were both named preseason Player and Pitcher of the year, respectively.

ATTENDANCE AUTHORITIES: Lamson Park has held the highest attendance in the Sun Belt conference for the past 13 seasons, and set school records last season with an average attendance of 1,287, for 29,171 all season. UL also led the 16 NCAA Regionals in total attendance and average attendance last season.

FAMILY AFFAIR: The Cajuns have two family links on the team, seniors Nerissa Myers and Brianna Cherry are cousins, and senior Matte Haack has a younger brother, Brooks, who is a freshman on the Ragin' Cajun football team.

SOLID COMPETITION: The Cajuns will face nine teams that were either ranked in the top 25 or received votes in the past weeks NCAA polls, including ESPN.com number one, Oklahoma (April 3rd). Of the 14 teams ranked above the Cajuns, five of them are still on the Cajuns' schedule, #1/2 Oklahoma, #6 Texas, #10/11 Texas A&M, #12 South Florida and #13/14 Michigan.

-- Ragin' Cajuns --

27th Annual Louisiana Classics Slated for Friday Start

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