Baylor
Louisiana
SB Travels to Louisiana to face No. 11 Louisiana, McNeese State
3/8/2019 2:53:00 PM | Softball
Lady Bears will face the Ragin' Cajuns for the third time this season
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BAYLOR LADY BEARS (11-8) Location: Waco, Texas Conference: Big 12 Head Coach: Glenn Moore Roster | Stats | Game Notes |
BAYLOR (11-8) at LOUISIANA (18-3) March 11, 2019 Lafayette, La. • Lamson Park BAYLOR (11-8) at MCNEESE STATE (11-13) March 12-13, 2019 Lake Charles, La. • Cowgirl Diamond Baylor Social Media:    |
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LOUISIANA (18-3) Location: Lafayette, La. Conference: Sun Belt Conference Head Coach: Gerry Glasco Roster | Stats | Game Notes |
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MCNEESE STATE (11-13) Location: Lake Charles, La. Conference: Southland Conference Head Coach: James Landreneau Roster | Stats | Game Notes |
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
Baylor softball (11-8) has already had its share of tests this season, but the Lady Bears will have one of their biggest challenges to date when they face 11th-ranked Louisiana (18-3) at 6 p.m. Monday in Lafayette, La.
The Ragin' Cajuns have won 18 in a row at Samson Park, dating back to last season, and are 11-0 at home this season.
"It's a crazy environment. It's a fun environment, if you embrace it," Baylor coach Glenn Moore said. "It's just fans that love the game of softball and it means a lot to them. You're up against that, as well as a dang good team in Louisiana. We need that type of environment to grow them up. Everything that we do now matters, and the more experiences they can have right now will prepare them for Big 12 play."
Baylor split with Louisiana at last month's Baylor Invitational, losing 5-2 in round-robin play and then beating the Ragin' Cajuns, 4-3, in the consolation game. Sophomore Sidney Holman (6-3, 3.25 ERA) picked up the win in the circle, giving up two earned runs on five hits and four walks with seven strikeouts in eight innings.
Senior Regan Green (2-4, 3.28), the reigning Big 12 Pitcher of the Week, said you have to "focus on yourself and your team and try to tune them out as much as possible." Baylor trails the all-time series, 11-16, including a 4-7 mark in Lafayette.
"It's pretty known how rowdy they can be over there," said junior second baseman Nicky Dawson, a Baton Rouge, La., native who is hitting .369 with a team-best seven stolen bases. "That will be different for us and some of the newer players on the team, but it will always be fun. . . . Hopefully, we don't fall under that pressure, but we can maintain our game and come out with the (win)."
The Lady Bears have been off since a 4-1 road win over Texas State when Holman, Green and freshman Madison Lindsey combined for a four-hitter. It was also their first game in a revamped defensive lineup that had Taylor Ellis moving from shortstop to catcher, Lou Gilbert from center field to short and Madi O'Neal from left field to center.
"The good thing is we have options to look at and we're not desperate," Moore said. "We're moving pieces around that can legitimately contribute to our success. So, now is the time we'd like to see what they can do in those positions, as opposed to what we were dealing with when we went to College Station a year ago (for the NCAA regional) and we had to shuffle our lineup around because we lost Carlee Wallace and Caitlin Charlton. We were just moving people around out of desperation. Now, it's at our option to do that and see what we can do."
Louisiana swept Texas State in a three-game weekend series in San Marcos and has won four of five since the Baylor Invitational. The Ragin' Cajuns are sixth nationally in batting average (.350), led by Bailey Curry (.438) and Sarah Hudek (.407) and a trip of players who have hit five homers.
Baylor wraps up its spring break trip to Louisiana by facing McNeese State (11-13) at 6 p.m. Tuesday and 4 p.m. Wednesday in Lake Charles. The Cowgirls opened Southland Conference play with a three-game sweep of Incarnate Word.
The two teams split a pair of games at last year's College Station Regional, with Baylor losing the opening game, 11-10, and then coming back for a 6-0 win that got them to the region final against Texas A&M.
"The ones that were here know what type of game they play, how aggressive they are, how much they like to run," Moore said. "You've got to keep in mind that six of those players are not in our lineup. So, we have a lot of new kids that haven't really played against those teams. But right now, there's a lot of parity in this sport, so most of the teams we're playing are capable of beating us."
STORY LINES
• Baylor softball travels to Louisiana over spring break to face No. 11 Louisiana in Lafayette and McNeese State in Lake Charles.
• BU has already played the Ragin' Cajuns twice this season - dropping a 5-2 contest Friday, Feb. 22 before topping Louisiana, 4-3 in extra innings two days later.
• Baylor has faced Louisiana and McNeese State in the NCAA Regional - Louisiana: 2009 (Waco), 2015 (Lafayette); McNeese State: 2018 (College Station).
• Regan Green was named the Big 12 Pitcher of the Week this week, marking her first career Big 12 weekly award. It is also Baylor's first weekly award of the season.
• Green pitched a complete game in the win over Southern Utah and matched her career high with 11 strikeouts. She struck out 50 percent of the batters she faced (22). It also marked her fourth career double-digit strikeout game.
• Baylor is 2-0 in true road contests this season.
• The Lady Bears are coming off a 4-1 win at Texas State on Wednesday. The Bobcats had two runners on base in the bottom of the seventh inning with no outs, but the Baylor defense was able to end the game without allowing any runs to score that inning.
• Taylor Ellis leads BU at the plate with a .370 batting average. In 54 at-bats, the junior shortstop has recorded 20 hits, five of which have gone for extra bases, and seven RBIs with 12 runs scored.
• Kassidy Krupit is the team leader with 17 RBIs, a mark that has her No. 6 in the Big 12. She also leads the team, and is tied for second in the Big 12, with six home runs.
• Nicky Dawson has reached base safely in every game this season, making her 19-game streak a new career-high.
• Baylor is 2-2 vs. top 10 opponents this season.
• Baylor is 9-2 when scoring first in 2019.
• The Lady Bears are 8-1 when the opponent scores two runs or less this season.
• Baylor adds two transfers and a strong eight-member signing class to the 2019 roster.
QUICK HITS
• Baylor will play 24 games against 12 programs that advanced to the 2018 NCAA Regionals, including WCWS participants Washington and Oklahoma.
• Baylor is 270-99 over the last 7 seasons, averaging over 38 wins per season since 2013.
• BU was picked 3rd in the Big 12 preseason coaches poll behind Oklahoma and Texas.
LADY BEARS AGAINST LOUISIANA
• BU is 1-1 against Louisiana this season, most recently defeating the Ragin' Cajuns, 4-3, in extra innings.
• Sidney Holman picked up the win in that contest as she gave up three runs off five hits with seven strikeouts in eight innings of work.
• Nicky Dawson had a pair of RBIs as she went 3-for-4 at the plate. Taylor Ellis and Goose McGlaun each had a multi-hit game against Louisiana.
• Louisiana leads the overall series against Baylor, 16-10.
• BU has won three of the last four contests against the Ragin' Cajuns and five of the last eight.
• Baylor's last win in Lafayette came March 9, 2017 when the Lady Bears prevailed, 5-4.
LADY BEARS AGAINST MCNEESE STATE
• Baylor is 23-7 against the Cowgirls and is 6-2 against them in the past two seasons.
• BU has only played in Lake Charles five times as the Lady Bears hold a 3-2 edge there.
• Baylor's most recent game against McNeese State came in the 2018 College Station Regional when Baylor won, 6-0.
