All teams want to win.
The 2014 UL Ragin’ Cajuns baseball team didn’t just want to win. It was the only thing — nothing else was acceptable — and it would fight anyone or do just about anything to achieve it.
“I didn’t know if practice or a fight was going to break out,” said UL coach Matt Deggs, who was the hitting coach a decade ago. “It just depended.”
The tone was set during an offseason team relay run when Michael Strentz and Caleb Adams fought … over which one was going to get to go twice.
“It was an ultracompetitive environment,” said third baseman Tyler Girouard, who credited both Deggs and head coach Tony Robichaux for fostering the spirit of competition.
Many members of that historic 2014 baseball team will be honored in a pregame ceremony as part of alumni weekend before Saturday's 2 p.m. Sun Belt game against Southern Miss at Russo Park.
Leading the intensity parade was All-American second baseman Jace Conrad.
“We were constantly trying to find ways to beat one another at whatever it is that we did,” Conrad said. “I think that’s what I remember the most. It was all about winning. Our focus was on nothing but that.
“That’s tough to find these days in sports or in the real world.”
To this day, Deggs said he’s never seen a worse loser than Conrad.
“I mean, it was bad,” Deggs said. “It was like the kid from Bad News Bears bad – Tanner Boyle. Jace got barred from the mound on pitching visits because he was cussing the pitcher so bad.”
If Robichaux told his players doing something would produce a win, it was done.
To prove it, one day Deggs suggested eating a grasshopper would do the trick.
“Before he finished his sentence, Scoob (Ryan Wilson) ate it,” ace pitcher Austin Robichaux said. “That’s the kind of team we were. When I tell you we would do anything to win, we’d do anything to win.”
Even now, 10 years after their team won 58 games, was ranked No. 1 nationally and earned a No. 6 overall national seed in the NCAA Tournament, falling one game short still eats at some of them.
“It still haunts me to this day that we were a game short (of College World Series),” Conrad said.
“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about it,” Deggs said.
Ragin Cajun fans turned out for the third game of the NCAA Super Regional baseball tournamen…
A decade later, Girouard, Conrad and Robichaux estimate they regularly keep in touch with more than half the 2014 team.
If not, how else could you win by one-upping your buddies?
“Any time we have a chance to take a dig at one of the other guys on the team, we take advantage of the opportunity,” Conrad laughed.
While guys like Strentz would much rather be known for toughness than raw talent, this group had plenty of both.
“We always said this, we were a bunch of nobodies who collectively came together to become somebody,” Deggs said.
The offense was dynamic. The Cajuns scored 530 runs on the season and had a team on-base percentage of .409. The lineup had eight who hit .290 or better. On the mound, the pitching staff had a team ERA of 3.50.
“We were all pulling in the same direction,” Girouard said. “It didn’t really matter who was the leader. Of course, Jace was the loud one, the intense one. And Mike (Strentz) was a big presence, but you also had guys like Caleb (Adams), Chase (Compton) and me and Lino (Ryan Leonards) that went about it a different way, but we all just relied on each other.”
Incredibly, the team lost its first game of the season 5-1 to Eastern Illinois.
“I remember that first game,” Girouard said. “We were losing late in the game and I was on third. Infield pop and I kind of blacked out and ran home. And Deggs came up to me and was like, “What are you doing?’ You’re trying to do too much. We’re going to be good.
“Just to kind of get that reality check right away, I think that kind of helped us.”
The squad won the next game 1-0 on a Conrad solo homer and never lost back-to-back games the rest of the season until the final game.
“In my opinion, it’s been the most impactful team since that 2000 (World Series) team,” Robichaux said. “My dad said he saw that 2000 team in us and that was the first time in a long time they had seen it.”
With a group like this, there was also a rebellious element as well. Robichaux’s strict rules included being clean shaven. Conrad constantly fought back.
“There were times when he’d say, ‘What makes you think you don’t have to shave?’” Conrad said.
So one day when it appeared Robichaux was extra happy at practice, Conrad made his move.
“I said, ‘Coach, we’ve been winning, so if you want me to shave and risk that, then I will,’ ” Conrad told. “But if not, how about we wait until we lost two games in a row?’
"After I came back from my next round of BP, he just looked at me and said, ‘That’s a deal.’ That’s how that went down.' ”
For many Cajuns fans, the beards that resulted from that win still tops their list of memories about the 2014 season.
Others remember the thrilling atmosphere of countless fans watching the game together in the Tigue Moore Field parking lot on a big screen during the Ole Miss super regional.
"We had good times," Girouard said. "We had different personalities on that team, but at the end of the day, I don’t think you could find one person on that team that didn’t say it was fun."
The experience of that Eastern Illinois loss in the opener paid off as postseason play began when Jackson State shocked the top-seeded Cajuns 1-0.
“They threw a soft-throwing lefty and we could not make an adjustment and they shut us out,” Robichaux said. “It was the first team to shut us out all year.”
UL responded in style by outscoring its next four opponents 39-14 to advance to the super regionals, where the Cajuns lost the final two games after winning the opener 9-5.
“I remember sitting in the dugout with Matt Hicks (after the final loss),” Girouard said. “Those emotions were tough. It was sad for me. I just remember being so sad that we weren’t going to be able to do this anymore.
“It was also, ‘Man, I don’t get to do this every day with my best friends anymore.’ That harsh ending was tough.”
Yes, this group was tough and competitive, but also loyal and compassionate.
“The thing about that team is there were a lot of broken kids and players and coaches on that team,” Deggs said. “I think we all helped heal each other. It was miraculous, nothing short of miraculous.
“I’d give anything to see them play one more time.”
