Softball Closes Week-Long Road Stretch With Sun Belt Series at App State

Louisiana (32-10, 15-3 Sun Belt) at App State (25-18, 7-9 Sun Belt)
Dates: Friday-Sunday, April 22-24, 2022
Location: Boone, N.C.
Stadium: Sywassink/Lloyd Family Stadium (1,000)
Series Schedule:
Fri., April 22 – 4 p.m. (CDT)
Sat., April 23 – 1 p.m. (CDT)
Sun., April 24 – 11 a.m. (CDT)

MEDIA INFORMATION
Season Stats (PDF): Louisiana | App State
Rosters: Louisiana | App State
Schedule/Results: Louisiana | App State
Television: ESPN+ | Talent: Kendall Lewis, PxP
Radio: ESPN Lafayette 103.3 FM // 1420 AM | Talent: Ian Auzenne, PxP
Live Stats: CajunStats.com
Live Video: Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3
Live Audio: Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3
Live Stats: Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3
Twitter Updates: @RaginCajunsSB

THE BASICS
>> The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns Softball team returns to Sun Belt Conference play and reaches the final destination of its Spring Break road trip when the team arrives in Boone, N.C. for a weekend series with App State from Friday-Sunday, April 22-24 at Sywassink/Lloyd Family Stadium.

>> The series with the Mountaineers concludes a week-long stretch of road games which began in the Midwest on Monday at St. Louis, continued Tuesday at Illinois, then moved on to Indiana on Wednesday before a flight on Thursday took the team to Charlotte to arrive in Boone.

>> Louisiana will be closing out a stretch of nine straight road games while in Boone. The road trek started with a Sun Belt series sweep of South Alabama from April 14-15 in Mobile.

>> Louisiana makes its first trip to Boone since the 2019 season – which is also the last time the two programs met because of COVID-19 implications. The Ragin' Cajuns lead the all-time series 11-0 (5-0 in Boone).

>> Louisiana carries an active streak of 70 consecutive Sun Belt Conference series won into the App State series – the nation's longest active streak of consecutive conference series won, which dates back to March 2013.

THE CAJUNS ARE RAGIN'
>> Louisiana arrives in Boone riding a season-high, nine-game winning streak which began with impressive Sun Belt sweeps of Troy and South Alabama.

>> The win streak has also coincided with Alexa Langeliers' return to play from an injury incurred at Georgia Southern (on March 19). Langeliers has generated a .429 average, delivered six extra base hits (2 doubles, triple, 3 home runs) and generated 10 RBI since her return.

>> As a result of the winning streak, the Ragin' Cajuns are sitting at a season-high 22 games above the .500 mark.

ALONE ATOP THE MOUNTAIN
>> Last week's series sweep at South Alabama vaulted Louisiana into sole possession of first place in the Sun Belt standings.

>> The journey to the top of the standings saw the Ragin' Cajuns post an 8-1 combined record over the three series against the Sun Belt's other 2021 NCAA Tournament participants: Texas State (2-1), Troy (3-0) and South Alabama (3-0).

>> Louisiana now controls its own destiny – now a full game ahead of South Alabama in the loss column – in the race for the SBC's regular season title.

>> Since the Sun Belt began regular season play in 2001, the Ragin' Cajuns program has claimed 17 of the 20 regular season titles.

BEAST MODE
>> All but one of Louisiana's nine starters recorded a base hit as the team piled up 12 off of Indiana pitching on Wednesday, marking the third consecutive game on the Spring Break trip with double-digit base hits (14 at St. Louis, 10 at Illinois).

>> Three games into the trip and the Ragin' Cajuns are batting .429 with 34 runs scored off of 36 base hits.

SPRING BREAK SUCCESS
>> Head coach Gerry Glasco started the Ragin' Cajuns annual Spring Break road trip tradition in 2019. In the previous two trips (2019, 2021), the team came away with a clean sweep both times.

>> In 2019, Louisiana swept a Sun Belt series at App State and went on to capture weekday wins at Campbell and UNC Greensboro.

>> In 2021, the Ragin' Cajuns won weekday games in Texas by sweeping a doubleheader from Lamar and winning single games at Sam Houston and Houston before closing with a three-game Sun Belt series sweep at Troy.

THREE'S COMPANY (IN THE CIRCLE)
>> Since April 1, the Ragin' Cajuns pitching trio of Sam Landry, Kandra Lamb and Meghan Schorman has combined to limit foes to a .159 average, 18 earned runs and 51 hits over 90 innings.

>> A recurring theme has been to see each pitcher throughout a weekend series – both in starting roles and relief roles. Since April 1, each one has thrown at least 21 innings in the circle.

>> Sam Landry (14-2, 2.10 ERA overall) is currently undefeated (8-0) in Sun Belt Conference play and sports a staff-best 1.55 ERA in conference games.

>> Dating back to April 6 at McNeese, Kandra Lamb has yielded just six base hits and two earned runs over her last 19 innings of work. She is 2-0 with a 0.74 ERA and has held foes to a .098 average during the stretch.

>> Meghan Schorman has shined in relief efforts throughout the entire season. Entering the App State series, she has worked 48-2/3 innings in relief recording a 6-1 record and 1.58 ERA while limiting foes to just 35 base hits and 11 earned runs.

A LOOK AT THE SERIES
Series Record: Louisiana leads, 11-0
Sun Belt Regular Season Games: Louisiana leads, 11-0
Last Meeting: 4/13/19 // LA 15, APP 5 (5)
In Boone: Louisiana leads, 5-0
Last Time in Boone: 4/13/19 // LA 15, APP 5 (5)
Streak: Louisiana, +11

>> Series began with Appalachian State's entry into the Sun Belt Conference in 2015. Louisiana claimed a pair of run-rule wins in Boone that season.
>> Louisiana claimed all of the previous 11 series meetings, including three shutouts in a sweep at Lamson Park in 2018.
>> The Ragin' Cajuns-Mountaineers series has been interrupted on three occasions, limiting the number of meetings: a winter storm warning canceled Louisiana's trip to Boone in 2017, the 2020 scheduled series at Lamson Park was canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic, then COVID-19 scheduling modifications left the teams off each other's schedule in 2021.
>> This weekend's series marks the first matchup since Louisiana's visit to Boone in 2019.
>> The Ragin' Cajuns posted a run-rule win in eight of the previous 11 series meetings.
>> In the programs' first-ever meeting in April 2015 in Boone, Ragin' Cajuns catcher Lexie Elkins finished a combined 8-for-10 at the plate with five home runs, 13 RBI and six runs scored as the No. 9-ranked Ragin' Cajuns swept a doubleheader from the Mountaineers.

NUMBERS TO KNEAUX
.192: The Ragin' Cajuns pitching staff has limited the opposition to a .192 average. Opponents hit sub-.200, combined, over the first five weeks of the season.
2.62: Louisiana enters the weekend ranked No. 1 nationally averaging 2.62 stolen bases per game (110 swipes in 42 games).
6: The six triples posted by Stormy Kotzelnick are two shy of the program record (8) set by Lana Jimenez both in 1995 and 1997.
8-0: Entering the App State series, Sam Landry stands unbeaten (8-0) in Sun Belt Conference play.
12: There are 12 different players who have combined to give Louisiana its 49 home runs.
17: The Ragin' Cajuns offense has generated double-digit runs in 17 games (16-1 record). Louisiana ranks Top 5 nationally averaging 7.3 runs per game.
20: Louisiana's pitching staff has yielded only 20 home runs to the opposition through 268 innings.
20: The team total of 20 triples produced marks the most by a Louisiana Softball squad since the exact amount was recorded in 1998.
22: The Ragin' Cajuns offense has produced double-digit hits in 22 games.
24: Quick strikes are not uncommon for the Ragin' Cajuns who have scored in the first inning in 24 of the season's 42 games. The squad has had a first-inning tally in each of the first three games so far on this week's Spring Break trip (St. Louis, Illinois, Indiana).
25: Louisiana's pitching staff has limited foes to two runs or less in 25 of the season's 42 games (25-0 record).
25: Stormy Kotzelnick leads the Ragin' Cajuns with 25 extra base hits (13 doubles, 6 triples, 6 home runs).
26: Team-leading stolen base total for Maddie Hayden (14 swipes in SBC play).
27-2: Louisiana's record when scoring first.
.360: Louisiana ranks second nationally with a .360 team batting average. The figure has been .350 or above the entire season.
.371: The Ragin' Cajuns' batting average in Sun Belt Conference play leading to an average of 7.8 runs per game.
49: Sun Belt foes have been limited to 49 base hits over a combined 82-2/3 innings pitched in conference play by Sam Landry and Kandra Lamb.
65%: Of the 20 total hits posted by Karly Heath, she's seen 65 percent go for extra bases (13 out of 20).
70: Nation-leading total of consecutive conference series won for Louisiana, a streak which began in March 2013.
141/131: The Ragin' Cajuns hitters have drawn more walks (141) than they have struck out (131).
140-44: Louisiana's runs-scored advantage over the opposition in Sun Belt Conference play.
156: Total number of extra base hits produced by Louisiana's offense (87 doubles, 20 triples, 49 home runs).
3,312: When the App State series begins on Friday, April 22 in Boone, a total of 3,312 days will have passed since Louisiana's streak of 70 consecutive Sun Belt Conference series won began back on March 29, 2013.

DIAMOND NOTES

Louisiana was preseason ranked in all four major national polls: No. 19 in Softball America, No. 22 in D1Softball and No. 23 in the ESPN/USA Softball poll.
Louisiana, the two-time defending Sun Belt regular-season and tournament champion, was selected as the favorite to win the 2022 Sun Belt Conference softball title in a vote of the league's 10 head coaches.
Kandra Lamb, Raina O'Neal and Sophie Piskos were voted onto the 2022 Sun Belt Conference Softball Preseason All-Conference Team.
Kandra Lamb represented Louisiana Softball on the Extra Inning Softball Elite 100 list and Sam Landry was named on of D1Softball's Top 75 Impact Freshman. The duo was ranked among D1Softball's Top 150 Players.
With the exception of Sophie Piskos at catcher, Raina O'Neal returning in center field and Taylor Roman at first base, the Ragin' Cajuns are using a new starter at every other position.
For Gerry Glasco, his fifth season in Louisiana has a different look and feel: the team largely consists of players he recruited and went from being one of the oldest in the nation to one of the youngest. The Ragin' Cajuns went from a roster in 2021 that was predominantly sixth-year and fifth-year players to a group in 2022 that includes eight freshmen and 12 total newcomers.
Louisiana is in a transition year in the pitching circle following the departure of former All-American and two-time Sun Belt Pitcher of the Year Summer Ellyson. After working alongside Ellyson last season to lead the Ragin' Cajuns to repeat champions in the Sun Belt, Kandra Lamb takes her turn as the pitching staff's leader.
The 2022 season has brought the much-anticipated debut for Louisiana's 2021 recruiting class, which was ranked No. 1 by Extra Inning Softball and includes the No. 4-rated recruit in pitcher Sam Landry and the No. 15-ranked prospect in Louisiana native Maddie Hayden.

ABOUT LOUISIANA
During the 2021 season, the Ragin' Cajuns reached the 40-win mark for the 22nd consecutive completed season, closing out the regular season winning 25 of the final 29 games, and advanced to Championship Sunday of the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional. Louisiana repeated as Sun Belt Conference regular season and tournament champions highlighted by an 11-1 record, regular season and tournament combined, against the league's other three NCAA Tournament participants (Texas State, Troy and South Alabama).

Moving forward into the 2022 season, Louisiana is armed with the nation's No. 1-ranked recruiting class of the 2021 recruits by Extra Inning Softball including the No. 4-rated recruit in pitcher Sam Landry and No. 15-rated recruit in outfielder Maddie Hayden, has first team All-Sun Belt performer Kandra Lamb back in the circle seeking to pick up where Summer Ellyson left off, and welcomes back Raina O'Neal and Taylor Roman and their power bats back to the lineup.

FOLLOW THE RAGIN' CAJUNS
Follow the Ragin' Cajuns on Facebook (/RaginCajunsSB), Twitter (@RaginCajunsSB) and Instagram (@Louisiana.SB) to stay up-to-date on all that is happening with Louisiana Softball.

Fans are encouraged to stay engaged with the Ragin' Cajuns by downloading the #GeauxCajuns app. Click here for iOS/Apple platforms and here for Android platforms.

-- RaginCajuns.com --

Softball Closes Week-Long Road Stretch With Sun Belt Series at App State

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Players Mentioned

Summer Ellyson

Maddie Hayden

Karly Heath

Stormy Kotzelnick

Kandra Lamb

Sam Landry

Raina O'Neal

Sophie Piskos

Taylor Roman

Meghan Schorman

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University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics

Softball Closes Week-Long Road Stretch With Sun Belt Series at App State

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Summer Ellyson

Maddie Hayden

Karly Heath

Stormy Kotzelnick

Kandra Lamb

Sam Landry

Raina O'Neal

Sophie Piskos

Taylor Roman

Meghan Schorman

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