Nothing ever seems to be easy for the UL softball team.
That trend continued Wednesday with a 5-4 nailbiter win over McNeese in Lake Charles.
The game ended with the Cowgirls having the winning runners in scoring position, before UL reliever Chloe Riassetto struck out the final two batters to escape the trap game scenario.
Now comes another state rival with coach Gerry Glasco’s Cajuns heading to meet UL-Monroe for a Sun Belt weekend series starting at 6 p.m. Friday.
“I’m thrilled with the girls,” Glasco said. “This has been a hard season.”
As a result of Tuesday's 9-4 win over LSU and Wednesday’s road win over McNeese, the Cajuns are now 13 in the RPI, which is another incredible turnaround after the slow start to the season.
“We started off 9-12,” Glasco said. “For the team to never quit and keep coming back. Since then, we’ve won something like 25 out of 28 and included in there are two top five wins.
“I’ve got to believe the committee when they look at us, we’ve got two top five wins and a lot of top 25 wins.”
UL enters the weekend 35-15 overall and 17-1 in league play. After a hot start, the Warhawks have slipped to 28-20 overall and a tie for sixth place in the league race at 9-9.
The series continues 2 p.m. Saturday and noon Sunday.
The top of the order continued to produce in Wednesday’s win with Mihyia Davis going 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI and Maddie Hayden was 1-for-3 with an RBI.
“Mihyia and Maddie are elite athletes,” Glasco said. “That’s the reason I wanted to put them back at the top of the order last week when I went to LSU.
“Those are special, special athletes, like the SEC has in the 1 and 2-holes.
They’re just being Mihyia and Maddie.”
Sam Roe had the best game at the plate for the Cajuns at 3-for-4 with a solo home run.
ULM is led offensively by Lourdes Bacon at .410 with 23 stolen bases and Carys Platt at .369 with 18 RBIs and 16 steals. The Warhawks have stolen 79 bases on the season.
In the circle, Maddie Nichols is 9-9 with a 2.69 ERA with 106 strikeouts in 114.2 innings. The other top option is Victoria Abrams (10-10, 3.33).