Softball Preview: at Georgia Southern

Games 42-44: No. 8 Louisiana (35-6, 16-1 Sun Belt) at Georgia Southern (28-22, 11-7 Sun Belt)
Saturday, Apr. 30 (DH) • 12 p.m. (CDT) • Eagle Field (700) • Statesboro, Ga.
Sunday, May 1 • 12 p.m. (CDT) • Eagle Field (700) • Statesboro, Ga.

Game Notes (PDF): Louisiana
Radio: ESPN 1420-AM • Talent: Steve Peloquin, PxP
TV: None
Live Stats
Live Video ($)
Rosters: Louisiana | Georgia Southern
Schedules: Louisiana | Georgia Southern
2016 Stats: Louisiana | Georgia Southern
Ragin' Cajuns Twitter: @ULRaginCajuns | @RaginCajunSB
Opponents' Twitter: @GSAthletics_SB

THE COACHES
Louisiana: Michael Lotief (Louisiana, 1985)
Record at Louisiana: 673-165-1 (14th season) Career Record: Same

Georgia Southern: Annie Smith (Grinnell College, 1995)
Record at GS: 150-132 (5th season) Career Record: Same

5 THINGS TO KNOW
1 - The Ragin' Cajuns have an opportunity to secure a share of the Sun Belt title and No. 1 seed (need one win) and win the championship outright (need two wins).

2 - Louisiana has won 27 consecutive Sun Belt Conference series (school and SBC record streak). The streak began in March 2013 with a three-game sweep of FIU.

3 - Louisiana and Georgia Southern meet in Statesboro for the first time. The Eagles joined the Sun Belt in 2015 and traveled to Lamson Park for a series.

4 - The Ragin' Cajuns are the only team in the nation to rank Top 10 both in batting average (10th, .341) and earned run average (9th, 1.95).

5 - Shellie Landry has been on a roll the past four Sun Belt series, hitting .457 (16-for-35) with nine home runs and 25 RBI. She tops the SBC with 30 RBI in league play.

CAJUNS TO MAKE FIRST TRIP TO STATESBORO
No. 8-ranked Ragin' Cajuns Softball (35-6, 16-1 Sun Belt) travels to Statesboro, Ga., this weekend (April 30-May 1) for the final regular season road games of the 2016 campaign. Louisiana is scheduled to face host-Georgia Southern (28-22, 11-7 Sun Belt) in a Saturday doubleheader and Sunday single game, with action beginning at 12 p.m. (CDT) both days. The series marks the first visit for the Ragin' Cajuns to Statesboro.

KNOCKING ON THE DOOR
The Ragin' Cajuns are one win shy of clinching a share of the Sun Belt Conference championship and the No. 1 seed in conference tournament set for May 11-14 in Mobile, Ala. With two more wins, Louisiana would capture the SBC championship outright. Landing the championship would mark the third consecutive title for the Ragin' Cajuns and 14th in the 16 seasons of Sun Belt Conference play (2001-16).

RAGIN' ON OFFENSE
With multiple home runs in all three games of last weekend's series vs. App State, the Ragin' Cajuns have posted multiple home runs 25 times in 41 games. The team has hit multiple home runs in 12 straight Sun Belt Conference games (dates back to Troy series).

HOME RUN QUEENS
No. 8 Louisiana belted nine home runs in the App State series at Lamson Park which increased the season home run total to 87. It's the fourth straight season with 80-plus (2013-16) and seventh time in 16 seasons under Michael Lotief's tutelage. The Ragin' Cajuns lead all levels of NCAA softball in both total home runs (87) and home runs per game (2.12).

SUPER SHELLIE
Shellie Landry (.331, 13 HR, 46 RBI) hit a home run and posted at least three RBI in all three games pacing the Ragin' Cajuns to a sweep of App State last weekend at Lamson Park which secured the team's 27th consecutive Sun Belt Conference series win. Landry hit .500, posted three home runs and collected a series-high 10 RBI over the weekend series with the Mountaineers. The RBI total represented the highest tally by a Sun Belt player in league play and was the highest output by a Cajuns player in a weekend series this season.

QUIETLY AT WORK
Haley Hayden (.372, 7 HR, 38 RBI) has reached 50 hits for the third straight season. In doing so, she's pieced together nine different hit streaks and has gone the entire season without back-to-back hitless outings. She has hit safely in 32 of 41 games.

SARA'S SURGE
Sara Corbello (.319, 9 HR, 22 RBI) has strengthened the bottom of the Ragin' Cajuns order in the past month. Since the Troy series (Mar. 25-26), she's raised her average 58 points (from .261 to .319), and is batting a team-best .378 (17-for-45) with seven home runs and 14 RBI. She's collected at least one base hit in 12 of the last 17 games.

STURDY STEWART
Alex Stewart picked up all three victories in the Ragin' Cajuns sweep of Appalachian State at Lamson Park last weekend, improving her Sun Belt Conference record to 11-0. The win on Sunday was her 20th of the season, landing her the first 20-win season of her career (now 20-3).

WINNING THE WEEKEND
No. 8 Louisiana is 6-for-6 in claiming Sun Belt series victories (USA, UTA, TROY, TXST, GAST, APP). The App State series win (April 23-24) extended the Ragin' Cajuns string of consecutive SBC series wins to 27, a school- and Sun Belt-record streak which began with a sweep of FIU in March 2013.

GREMILLION'S GOT THE GRIP
Freshman Kara Gremillion continued to shine at third base last weekend, fielding all 15 chances in the App State series without an error. For the season, Gremillion has committed only three errors over 112 chances (47 PO, 62 A, 3 E, .973 FLD%)

BACK IN THE GROOVE
The Ragin' Cajuns finished the App State series with 15 hits with runners in scoring position, which marked a season-high for a weekend series (previous high was 14 w/RISP at UT Arlington). The Cajuns hit .429 (15-for-35) with runners in scoring position against the Mountaineers.

BALANCED EFFORT
Louisiana's lineup features four players with 40-plus RBI (Craighton, Elkins, Landry, Sanders). There are five players with double digits in home runs (Craighton, Elkins, Landry, Sanders, Vincent). And, six different players have reached 30 base hits (Craighton, Elkins, Hayden, Landry, Sanders, Vincent).

STOPPING 'EM IN THEIR TRACKS
The Cajuns' pitching staff has held foes to two runs or less in 28 of 41 games (27-1 record). In back-to-back Sun Belt series against Troy and Texas State, the staff yielded no more than two runs. Opponents have surpassed five runs only three times (Feb. 19 vs. Oregon; March 13 vs. South Alabama; April 16 at Florida).

ANSWERING THE CALL
The Ragin' Cajuns pitching staff, spearheaded by Alex Stewart and Kylee Jo Trahan, has left little doubt they are ready to carry the torch after the graduation of Jordan Wallace and Christina Hamilton. The group - which also includes Victoria Brown, Alison Deville and Macey Smith - has combined for 16 shutouts and surrendered two runs or fewer in 28 of 41 games thus far. Of the 202 hits allowed in 248 innings, only 43 have gone for extra bases.

A BAND OF HEROES
Lexie Elkins hit five home runs in the season-opening weekend in Gulf Shores. Kelsey Vincent tallied 12 RBI the weekend of Feb. 25-28. DJ Sanders hit four home runs and posted a series-high seven RBI at Southern Miss. Aleah Craighton hit key home runs in the South Alabama sweep, the second straight weekend she homered twice in both games of a doubleheader. Shellie Landry had a game-winning RBI and momentum-shifting single vs. South Alabama. Taylor Terrio slapped a walk-off single into left field to secure a 5-4 win in nine innings over McNeese State. Craighton (at UTA) and Landry (at Troy) both recently homered three times in a doubleheader. Sara Corbello homered each game of the Troy and Texas State series. Sanders homered both games of the doubleheader at Georgia State, both time providing the winning runs. All proof that the Ragin' Cajuns batting lineup can have any one given player deliver key performances.

ELKINS NO. 1 OVERALL PICK IN NPF DRAFT
Two-time All-American Lexie Elkins was chosen as the No. 1 overall pick by the Pennsylvania Rebellion in the 2016 National Pro Fastpitch (NPF) College Senior Draft held on April 14. Elkins became the first No. 1 overall pick – and fourth draftee – in Ragin' Cajuns history. She joins Krystal Lewallen (2006), Christi Orgeron (2012 and Brianna Cherry (2013) as draftees.

ELKINS NAMED TOP 25 FINALIST FOR SOFTBALL'S TOP HONOR
Lexie Elkins was one of the 25 finalists named for the 2016 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award, the Amateur Softball Association (ASA) of America and USA Softball announced on Wednesday, April 13. This is the second time in her career that Elkins was selected as a finalist for the award. She was named a Top 26 finalist in 2015.

UP NEXT FOR LOUISIANA
The Ragin' Cajuns return to Lamson Park and host ULM Saturday-Sunday, May 7-8. It will be "Senior Weekend" celebrating the careers of seniors Sara Corbello, Lexie Elkins, Gabby Felps, Shellie Landry, Meagan Thomas and Kelsey Vincent.

LOUISIANA-GEORGIA SOUTHERN SERIES
Series Record: Louisiana leads 5-0
In Lafayette: Louisiana leads 3-0
In Statesboro, Ga.: First Meeting
Neutral: Louisiana leads 2-0
Current Streak: Louisiana won 5
Last Meeting: 3/17/15 at Lamson Park
(Louisiana 9, Georgia Southern 0 - 6 inn.)

All-Time Series Meetings
4/9/93             UL 5, GS 0                 Columbia, S.C. (South Carolina Round Robin)
3/28/97           UL 10, GS 2 (5)         Marietta, Ga. (Georgia Tech Buzz Classic)
3/16/15           UL 8, GS 2                 Lamson Park
3/17/15           UL 12, GS 1 (5)         Lamson Park
3/17/15           UL 9, GS 0 (6)           Lamson Park

Series Notes
First-ever meetings in Statesboro...Second Sun Belt series between the two programs...Initial Sun Belt series took place at Lamson Park in March 2015 (was also the first meetings on either school's campus)...Only meetings prior to Georgia Southern joining the Sun Belt Conference took place during former head coach Yvette Girouard's tenure...Cajuns and Eagles met twice at a neutral site...Programs met in Columbia, S.C., in 1993 competing in the South Carolina Round Robin and in 1997 in Marietta, Ga., in the Georgia Tech Buzz Classic.

Last Series (March 16-17, 2015 - Lamson Park)
Series was moved to March to accommodate the Ragin' Cajuns trip to Oregon in late-April. Shellie Landry, 3-for-4 with a home run and two RBI, was one of four Cajuns with multiple hits in an 8-2 series-opening win. Landry's home run opened a 4-0 lead in the fourth inning. A three-run home run by Kelsey Vincent upped the advantage to 7-2 in the sixth inning. Lexie Elkins was the top performer the next day leading Louisiana to a 12-1 (5 inn.), 9-0 (6 inn.) sweep. Elkins finished 5-for-7 at the plate and collected six RBI. The Eagles scored first in Game 1, but gave the lead back in the bottom of the first after a two-out error on a Vincent grounder allowed two Cajuns to score. Louisiana wound up scoring in each at bat in pulling away for the series-clinching win. In the finale, Jordan Wallace limited Georgia Southern to three hits and struck out eight. The Cajuns offense used four home runs to generate eight of the nine runs.

DIAMOND NOTES
#PickMeUp: Brittany Nollkamper (catcher) and Taylor Terrio (right field) have filled in for Lexie Elkins (thumb) and Kassidy Zeringue (ankle) who are recovering from injuries.

#ToughOut: In the month of April, Aleah Craighton has been aboard the base path 26 times in 39 plate appearances. She's hitting .480 with 12 hits (6 HR) plus 11 walks and three hit by pitch. Her April on base percentage is a sterling .667.

#HeyItsHaley: With 47 runs, 51 hits and 38 RBI, Haley Hayden is on pace to reach 60 runs, 60 hits and 50 RBI for the third straight season.

#CatchMeIfYouCan: Louisiana is 29-0 when scoring first. In those 29 wins, the Ragin' Cajuns have relinquished the lead only twice (4th inn. of Game 1 vs. TTU; 5th inn of Game 2 at GSU).

#StrengthInNumbers: Every starter in the Ragin' Cajuns lineup has posted at least 20 base hits. The numbers range from 27 to 51. The team average of .341 ranks No. 10 in the NCAA stats.

#FastLaneFirst: The Ragin' Cajuns have scored in the first inning 19 times. Louisiana averages 3.0 runs in the first inning, alone, outscoring foes 57-19.

#SteadyAlex: Alex Stewart began the season with 35 2/3 consecutive walk-free innings. She's yielded only 20 walks in 142 innings pitched through her first 28 appearances (25 starts). Stewart worked eight walk-free innings last weekend vs. App State and enters the Georgia Southern series on a string of 11-1/3 walk-free frames.

#ScoringInBunches: The Ragin' Cajuns have scored multiple runs in 75 out of 237-1/3 innings at the plate. The bulk of the team's production has been in the middle innings (third through fifth) where 161 out of 329 totals runs (49 percent) have crossed the plate.

#NationalPower: Dating back to the start of the 2015 season, Louisiana has been in the Top 10 of the NFCA rankings in 23 of the past 26 polls and Top 10 in the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll in 22 of the past 26 polls.

#FamilyTies: Being members of the Ragin' Cajuns softball team has added meaning for three families. Sisters Shellie Landry and Jaime Landry are competing together collegiately for the first time (Jaime redshirted in 2015). Kara Gremillion is following in the footsteps of her aunts, Stacie Gremillion and Sandy Percle, who donned the Cajuns uniform in the mid-1980s. And, Chelsea Lotief joins her father, head coach Michael Lotief, in the dugout while suiting up for the Ragin' Cajuns like her mother, Stefni (Whitton) Lotief, did from 1987-90.

#GeauxCajuns

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Players Mentioned

Victoria Brown

Sara Corbello

Aleah Craighton

Alison Deville

Lexie Elkins

Gabby Felps

Kara Gremillion

Christina Hamilton

Haley Hayden

Jaime Landry

Shellie Landry

Chelsea Lotief

Brittany Nollkamper

DJ Sanders

Macey Smith

Alex Stewart

Taylor Terrio

Meagan Thomas

Kylee Jo Trahan

Kelsey Vincent

Jordan Wallace

Kassidy Zeringue

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