Once the 2000 College World Series happened, every successful team the UL Ragin’ Cajuns fielded for more than a decade naturally was compared to that squad.
Since 2014, the comparison shifted to that squad that was ranked No. 1 nationally late in the season and earned a national seed.
Once this year’s Cajuns rattled off a 16-game winning streak and vaulted to the top of the Sun Belt standings, many longtime UL fans hearkened back to 2014.
All of those memories will be relived this weekend around Russo Park at 2 p.m. Saturday when that team is celebrated during the Southern Miss game. UL coach Matt Deggs links the 2014 club and his team this year.
“There are a lot of similarities,” said Deggs, who was the UL hitting coach a decade ago. “They’re both gritty and find a way to win no matter what. A lot of strong wills, strong men, personalities that are pretty good at baseball and love to play.”
You can imagine how much fun it is for members of the 2014 team to watch this version of the Cajuns.
“If I’m not at the game, I’m watching the game,” said 2014 All-American second baseman Jace Conrad, who batted .317 with 20 doubles, nine homers and 65 RBIs in 2014. “If not watching it, I’m listening to it. I’m pretty much keeping up with every game. I make it a priority because at the end of the day, I want to support them like people supported me when I was there.”
Tyler Girouard, who hit .324 at third base in 2014, said he can’t attend as many games as he’d like because he has young children, but he regularly follows this year’s team.
“Now it’s, I feel like, I’m on the team,” Girouard said. “I kind of feel like I’m pulling for them to win now as much as the guys want to win.
“It’s just fun. I know it’s going to get compared to us for years. They went on a great run this year and they’re not done yet.”
Girouard hopes this year's team can draw inspiration from past accomplishments.
“I think the most important part is just looking back at that and thinking we were a part of something great,” he said. “You hope that your time there can be used to inspire and push them to that next level to actually get there in Omaha.”
While the current version of the Cajuns certainly won’t get to 58 wins or get ranked No. 1 nationally, Omaha remains a possibility.
“I think they’re their own teams,” Deggs said. “We had two or three really good arms (in 2014). There are more arms on this team. Offensively, we’re kind of similar. I think we had a little more thump in ’13 and ’14, but they are similar in some aspects.”
The 2014 offense batted .317 as a team with 530 runs, 141 doubles, 68 homers and 109 stolen bases. Currently, UL is hitting .296 with 286 runs, 85 doubles, 51 homers and 49 steals.
Many UL fans have wondered over the years what might have happened if the 2014 squad had one or two more pitchers. Perhaps it was just one LP Langevin away from winning a national championship.
"Yep, I can even remember the year after in '15 when Gunner (Leger), Wyatt (Marks), Evan (Guillory, when all those guys came through," Girouard said. "Man, if we would have had two of those arms — even one of them. That was also when D-Mo (Dylan Moore) came out and he was unhittable.
"But we still made it happen. I can’t give enough credit to the guys in our bullpen that year. Those guys did a great job. At the end, we just ran out of juice and it didn’t fall in our favor."
The only comparison that’s really important to Deggs is the determination to compete no matter the circumstances.
“In ’14, it wasn’t always pretty, either,” Deggs said. “A lot of it was ugly. We would just find ways to outlast people and this group does the same thing, man. They love to compete and win.
“Both teams love to do that to a point where it gets nasty sometimes. Once you get that feeling, it’s an addiction, right? It’s an expectation.”
The 2014 head coach Tony Robichaux died in 2019, but that team’s ace pitcher was his son Austin. Anytime the program succeeds like this season, it brings a smile to members of his family.
“When that program succeeds, it’s good for us as a family, because that was our father’s goal,” Austin Robichaux said. “It doesn’t matter who is coaching there. It could be 30 years from now and if that program does well, that’s something our father wanted to do.
“Seeing the program succeed and getting the recognition it deserves is huge for us as a family.”