The final regular-season series of the Sun Belt schedule can be tricky.
It’s final exams week and the series begins a day early on Thursday. There’s also no midweek game to help stay sharp, nor is there a normal practice with the team concentrating on schoolwork.
So UL softball coach Gerry Glasco said he’ll count on a season of preparation when his No. 17 Ragin’ Cajuns take on Troy at 6 p.m. Thursday at Lamson Park.
“It’ll be as little preparation — as far as preparation a day or two before the game — as any of the eight Sun Belt series all year,” Glasco said.
While the Cajuns have won 28 of their last 31 games and have clinched the league’s regular-season title, the visiting Trojans are far from a pushover.
“All you need to know is they’ve already beaten South Alabama one game and they beat Texas State one game,” Glasco said. “That shows you right there that they’re a threat to us, and they beat us last year.
“They’ve got good hitters up and down the lineup and they’re well-coached. If you’re not prepared for it, you’ll get beat.”
UL enters the weekend 38-15 overall and 20-1 in Sun Belt play, and Troy is tied for fourth place at 32-19 and 12-9.
The Cajuns have a No. 13 RPI as of Wednesday and Troy is at No. 61.
In UL’s pursuit of hosting an NCAA regional, each game this weekend carries huge significance.
“In my mind, we’ve been in must-win situations ever since we started out the season 9-12,” Glasco said.
Troy stunned the Cajuns in the first game of the series in Alabama last season when Libby Baker hit a walk-off, two-run homer for an 8-7 win.
Baker is still one of Troy’s top hitters at .344 with 11 homers and 39 RBIs, along with another familiar name in Jade Sinness (.365, 9 HRs, 44 RBIs).
Baker also is Troy’s ace pitcher at 14-10, allowing 131 hits, 69 walks and striking out 53 in 142⅔ innings. Making the second most starts for Troy is Hayley Pittman (6-4, 3.90 ERA, 61 IP, 52 K).
UL is boasting a deeper lineup with catcher Victoria Valdez (.288, 7 HRs, 28 RBIs) seemingly catching her second wind as the grind of the season intensifies.
“I think her legs were so much better this weekend,” Glasco said of Valdez. “As the season goes on, she’s just a tough little kid. She’s a tough little position player. I love watching her play. I love the way she competes.
“She thinks she’s King Kong. She doesn’t back down from anybody, and she plays the game with an extremely high softball IQ. So she’s loving the challenge.”
Glasco credits his coaching staff for persuading him to give the team more days off to preserve the players' legs down the stretch.
“That’s not easy for me to do,” he said. “I just don’t have a natural inclination to take days off. We’ve given them something like six off days in the last three weeks.”
Another player who has been lengthening UL’s lineup recently is junior Kayla Falterman in right field. In getting more at-bats since the road game at LSU in the middle of April, Falterman has elevated her batting average from .115 to .257 by hitting .500 over her last 14 at-bats.
Falterman hit .414 over 99 at-bats during her freshman season in 2022.
“So now that we’re giving her a little chance to play, it’s not surprising at all,” Glasco said. “In fact, the difficult part of playing that one inning here and one inning there — that’s responsible for her batting average — but it’s not indicative of her talent or her ability.”