LAFAYETTE – The Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns Softball team gained additional preseason Top 25 rankings for its 2023 season resume on Tuesday, January 24 with the announcement of the Softball America and ESPN.com/USA Softball preseason polls.
Louisiana (47-13, 23-4 SBC in 2022), the three-time defending Sun Belt Conference regular season and tournament champions, is ranked No. 22 by Softball America [softballamerica.com] in its initial listing for the 2023 college softball season.
USA Softball was the third organization to award the Ragin’ Cajuns a preseason Top 25 ranking ahead of Year No. 6 with Gerry Glasco. Louisiana will start the upcoming season ranked at No. 24 in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 poll [teamusa.org].
The latest preseason rankings add to the No. 20 slot that Louisiana landed at in the D1Softball Top 25 Preseason poll [d1softball.com] which was released on Tuesday, Jan. 17.
For the 20th consecutive season, the Ragin' Cajuns are preseason ranked in at least one poll published by a national media outlet. Louisiana has now appeared in every edition of both the ESPN.com/USA Softball (began in 2006) and Softball America (began in 2019) preseason polls.
Eight of the Ragin’ Cajuns 2023 season opponents appear in the Softball America Preseason Top 25 (Oklahoma State, Florida State, UCLA, Florida, Arkansas, Texas, UCF, Michigan) and the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll also lists eight of Louisiana’s upcoming foes (UCLA, Oklahoma State, Florida State, Florida, Arkansas, Texas, UCF and LSU). Both polls have six of Louisiana’s foes preseason ranked in the Top 10.
Louisiana, an NCAA Tournament participant each year since 1999, begins the 2023 season at Yvette Girouard Field at Lamson Park from Friday-Sunday, February 10-12 hosting the 37th Annual Louisiana Classics.
The official season opener is set for Friday, Feb. 10 at 4:30 p.m., when the Ragin’ Cajuns begin play in the Louisiana Classics with a matchup against Lafayette College.
To view the complete 2022 season schedule, click here [ragincajuns.com].
Louisiana is coming off the program's 23rd consecutive 40-win season and NCAA Tournament appearance. In the 2022 season, the Ragin' Cajuns placed a conference-high nine players on the All-Sun Belt team, produced five NFCA All-Central Region performers, recorded a program-record .351 season batting average and generated the most home runs in Glasco's tenure (82).
ABOUT LOUISIANA
As he heads into Year No. 6 guiding the Ragin' Cajuns, Gerry Glasco aims to continue molding his influx of young talent - the bulk from the No. 1 recruiting class that debuted in Spring 2022 - into a strong and durable national postseason contender.
Last spring, Glasco directed and mentored a lineup that featured at most two upperclassmen and as many as five freshmen, and developed them into a championship and NCAA Tournament team. Despite the youthfulness, Louisiana advanced to Championship Sunday of the NCAA Clemson Regional.
Fast forward to now, and the youthful Ragin' Cajuns group is a year wiser and still has many other veteran pieces in place to form a dangerous combination.
The three key pieces to last season's pitching success remain intact (Meghan Schorman, Kandra Lamb and Sam Landry) and all but two starters in the lineup return headlined by leading home run hitters Alexa Langeliers and Karly Heath (13 each), leading run-producer Stormy Kotzelnick (51 RBI), top hitter for average Jourdyn Campbell (.392) and stolen-bases leader Maddie Hayden (28-of-34).
FAN DAY SET FOR JANUARY 28
The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns Softball team is scheduled to host their Fan Day event on Saturday, January 28 from 12:00-4:00 p.m. at Yvette Girouard Field at Lamson Park. Entry to the event is free of charge for all and open to the public.
Beginning at 12:00 p.m., there will be an autograph session with members of the Ragin' Cajuns squad on the lower level concourse of the main grandstand area. Fans will also have a chance to pick up a free copy of the 2023 season poster.
Fans will have a chance to get a preview of the 2023 team, and watch them compete, during an intersquad scrimmage scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m.
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