Cajuns Back Home for One Game Against Southern

Date: February 26
Time: 7:00 P.M.
Location: Lafayette, La.
Site: Lamson Park
Radio: ESPN 1420-AM
Live Stats: www.ragincajuns.com
Opponent: Southern University

WHAT'S ON TAP? The 12-2 Ragin' Cajuns are taking on Southern in non-conference action at Lamson Park. The Cajuns will look to improve upon their 5-0 home record before heading back to Florida for the Diamond Nine Citrus Classic.

CAJUN UPDATE: Louisiana took home the NFCA Leadoff Classic Title going 4-1 in Clearwater, Fla. winning the crown with the best run differential. #15 Michigan, Central Florida and DePaul joined the Cajuns as the four teams with a 4-1 record. The Cajuns dropped their first game of the classic to #15 Michigan, before topping #14 South Florida, Illinois State, and Hofstra.

SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY JAGUARS: Louisiana is facing the Jaguars for just the third time in series history. The Jaguars upset the Cajuns in 2011 at the McNeese Cowgirl Classic in their last meeting. Louisiana won their first meeting in 2000 by a score of 35-1.

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. The honor is the first of her career, and second this season for the Cajuns. Jordan Wallace won Pitcher of the Week last Monday. 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.

LEADING THE PACK: Freshman designated player Sara Corbello sits alone atop the Cajuns batting ranks, hitting .417 on the season (15-for-36) with six RBI. After 14 games, she ranks third in the SBC in batting average and has started every game for the Cajuns at designated player.

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 93 putouts, and has started every game at catcher. She is batting .415 on the season with three home runs and 16 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 .368 batting average (63-for-171), with 60 runs scored, 57 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: Following a two-home run game on Sunday, February 24 against James Madison, freshman Shellie Landry leads the team in home runs, with 6 on the season. Landry also leads the team with 21 RBI, while starting every game in left field. She paces the team with 18 hits and is batting .391.

WATERMAN OFF THE WALL: In just her fourth career at-bat, senior Megan Waterman doubled off the left field wall, missing a home run by mere feet on Friday, February 15. On Saturday, February 16th she would get another pinch hitting opportunity, this time clearing the wall for her first career home run. She is 2-for-2 with a slugging percentage of 3.000 in 2013.

HOW DO THEY RANK? Louisiana is ranked 12th in both the USA Today/NFCA Coaches and the ESPN.com/USA Softball polls released on February 19th, up three spots from last weekend. The Cajuns started the season ranked 11th, before falling to 15th last week.

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.

ALL SUN BELT: Six Cajun's were named to the preseason All-Sun Belt Conference team, 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. Lamson Park has held 4066 fans this season after five games, averaging 813 a game.

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 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.
WHO'S AT SHORTSTOP? Senior Nerissa Myers has started 184 games straight and 190 of the last 193 games at shortstop. The only player to start a game at shortstop for the Cajuns since 2009 was current head coach, Megan Granger. Myers has a career .945 fielding percentage, making 251 putouts with 346 assists and just 35 errors.

LEADING OFF: Nerissa Myers sent the fifth pitch of the Cajuns' first at-bat over the left field wall on Saturday, Feb. 9 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.

HAVE MERCY: The Cajuns have won six games this season by way of the NCAA 8-run mercy rule, out scoring opponents 106-37. They have seen the seventh inning just three times, and won three 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.

University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics

Cajuns Back Home for One Game Against Southern

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