University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
Pittsburgh
Cajuns Head to Orlando for Citrus Classic
2/28/2013 6:02:00 PM | Softball
Location: Orlando, Fla.
Site: ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex
Radio: ESPN 1420-AM
Live Stats: www.ragincajuns.com:
TV: Friday, March 1, vs Texas on ESPN 360
Opponents: Pittsburgh, Texas A&M, Texas, College of Charleston, Illinois State
Game Notes
WHAT'S ON TAP? The Ragin' Cajuns are traveling to Orlando, Florida for the Diamond-9 Citrus Classic. The Cajuns will take on two top-ten ranked teams, #5/8 Texas A&M, and #5/9 Texas in games number two and three at the Classic. The Cajuns will also take on Pittsburgh, College of Charleston and Illinois State.
CAJUNS UPDATE: Louisiana is coming off a five-inning, 9-1 win over Southern at Lamson Park on Tuesday, February 26 that improved them to 13-2 on the season. The Cajuns offense was jump-started by freshman Shellie Landry's first-inning grand slam. It was the first grand slam of her young career.
CHERRY NAMED PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Brianna Cherry was named the Sun Belt Player of the Week after a powerful weekend at the plate in the NFCA Lead Off Classic. Cherry went 7-for-19 at the plate with eight RBI with seven runs scored and four home runs, helping the Cajuns win the NFCA Leadoff Classic. She drove in runs in every game, and scored in every game but one. The honor is the first of her career, and second this season for the Cajuns after Jordan Wallace won Pitcher of the Week last Monday.
ALL-NFCA LEADOFF CLASSIC: Brianna Cherry and Shellie Landry represented Louisiana as selections to the NFCA Leadoff Classic All-Tournament Team over the weekend of February 22-24. Cherry batted .333 (5-for-15) with three home runs with seven RBI and six runs scored. Landry batted (.375) 6-for-16 with two home runs, both in the same game, and five RBI.
CHERRY ON TOP: Senior center fielder Brianna Cherry is batting a team-high .429 (18-for-42) with six home runs and scored 20 runs, both also team-highs. She has amassed 20 total bases in 42 at-bats slugging .952. Cherry exceeded her career highs in almost every offensive category last season, including seven homers and 46 runs scored.
HOME RUNS...HOME RUNS EVERYWHERE: With 20 home runs in 15 games, Louisiana leads the Sun Belt in home runs by a margin of eight. In fact, Brianna Cherry and Shellie Landry combined have as many as the next highest team (South Alabama, 12) in the conference.
DOMINATING THE DISH: Senior catcher Sarah Draheim has been a huge presence both behind and at the plate for the Cajuns this season. She leads the team with 96 putouts, and has started every game at catcher. She is batting .419 on the season with three home runs and 17 RBI. Draheim batted .250 in her first three seasons.
NO WAITING FOR WALLACE: Sophomore pitcher Jordan Wallace is quickly building on what was a record breaking freshman campaign, racking up five wins in her first five starts of the season. She holds a 8-1 record with a 1.32 ERA (10 er, 53.0 ip). Wallace has 74 strikeouts and just 14 walks while allowing 35 hits. She was named the Sun Belt Pitcher of the Week on February 18.
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 14-for-43 with 14 singles. In her career, Fernandez has 124 hits, including 123 singles and one double. Her only extra base hit came on February 12, 2011 as her last 121 hits have been singles.
NO SENIOR SLIDE: The five seniors, Brianna Cherry, Sarah Draheim, Matte Haack, Nerissa Myers and Megan Waterman combine for a .379 batting average (67-for-177), with 66 runs scored, 61 RBI and 13 home runs. In the first seven games, all five of the seniors had at least one home run, and combined for a slugging percentage of .768.
FRESHMAN FIREPOWER: Outfielder Shellie Landry hit her first career grand slam on Tuesday against Southern, and has now homered in back-to-back games this season twice. Her 26 RBI not only lead the team, but the entire Sun Belt Conference and she paces the team in home runs, along with Brianna Cherry, with six each.
HOW DO THEY RANK? Louisiana is ranked 13th in both the USA Today/NFCA Coaches and the ESPN.com/USA Softball polls released on February 26th, down three spots from last week. The Cajuns started the season ranked 11th, and were the unanimous selection to win the Sun Belt.
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, including five straight. They will also attempt to extend a streak of 14 straight NCAA Regional tournament berths.
SOLID COMPETITION: The Cajuns schedule features 11 teams that were either ranked in the top 25 or received votes in NCAA polls, including ESPN.com number one, Oklahoma (April 3rd). Of the 14 teams ranked above the Cajuns, three are still on the Cajuns' schedule, #1/2 Oklahoma, #6 Texas, #9/10 Texas A&M.
HAVE MERCY: The Cajuns have won seven games this season by way of the NCAA 8-run mercy rule, out scoring opponents 115-38. They have seen the seventh inning just three times, and won four games in the fifth inning.
CLEARING THE BENCH: 28 different players have seen time at the plate or on the base paths this season for the Cajuns. In all of 2012, just 12 players saw action in the field, not including pitchers.
