It’s always scary for a coach to disrupt the normal practice procedure.
Final exams week did that for the UL Ragin’ Cajuns and Troy softball teams.
Add an unusual Thursday series opener and a 90-minute rain delay and coach Gerry Glasco’s No. 17-ranked Cajuns didn’t adjust well enough at all in a 3-0 loss to Troy at Lamson Park.
“I was worried, “ Glasco said. “I was really worried. I hadn’t already seen the kids all week. They’ve had voluntary hitting. They had final exams.
“We weren’t ready. We hit too many ground balls. You can’t hit ground balls. You have to get the ball in the air. That’s something we work on a take a lot of pride in, and we just couldn’t do it tonight.”
It’s the 10th time in Glasco’s seven years at UL the Cajuns lost game one of a series. The last time it happened was at Troy on April 21 last season on a game-winning, two-run homer. The Cajuns rebounded with wins of 9-2 and 6-1 to win that series and have won the final two games the first nine times as well.
In order to extend the Sun Belt series win streak to 89, UL must win the final two games this weekend, beginning at 6 p.m. Friday.
UL is 38-16 on the season and 20-2 in league play, while Troy improved to 33-19 and 13-9.
The loss also snapped UL’s 13-game home winning streak. UL was 25-2 against Troy in home games over the years and 32-3 overall. “We’ve got our work cut out for us to save this series, and that’s what we’ll have to do tomorrow.”
Much like UL-Monroe had success with last weekend, Troy opened the game with a sophomore starting pitcher in Kate Peters, who only had thrown 15 innings this season. Peters allowed one hit, two walks and struck out none in 2⅔ innings.
That was followed by Savannah Money with 2⅓ innings and Libby Baker finished it off with 2⅓ innings.
“We didn’t execute as an offense tonight and that’s unfortunate, because we’ve got so much at stake for the season,” Glasco said.
The Cajuns finished with three hits and stranded seven runners.
“We should be ready for every pitcher on the roster,” Glasco said. “That’s pretty common for a Sun Belt opponent to put somebody out there we haven’t seen.
“You have to recognize. You’ve got a (sophomore) out there that hasn’t thrown — seize the lead and get her off the field and we just didn’t do it.
“It’s what you saw ULM do, I think everybody’s going to try mixing pitchers. We have to be able to adjust quickly when they come in. We didn’t show the ability to adjust to ULM, and we didn’t show the ability to adjust tonight. That’s probably what they’ll keep doing.”
Neither team scored until the Trojans' two-run fourth inning. Sam Landry walked leadoff batter Taylor McKinney for the only walk UL.
“You can’t walk leadoff batters,” Glasco said. “We talked about that. We go into a 0-0 game and we walk the leadoff batter. That just set us up for a big inning. We had a double play ball and we didn’t make the double play.
“It was exactly where we wanted it and just didn’t make the play. We’ve done that all year. Some things just didn’t go our way tonight that’s been going our way. This will be a good test for us.”
Libby Baker followed it with a single to ignite the inning and Cassidy Boltz’s grounder to first scored the first run.
After Landry hit Audra Thompson to load the bases with one out, Sarah Beth Brake greeted Chloe Riassetto with an RBI single for a 2-0 cushion.
Brake later hit a solo home run with one out in the seventh for a three-run lead. Brake entered hitting .192 with six homers and nine RBIs.
Landry gave up two runs on three hits and one walk with four strikeouts. Riassetto added 3⅔ innings, allowing one run on two hits, no walks and struck out four.