Senior pitcher Rachel Hayes winds up her throw to her opponent. File Photo/The Lion's Roar

Last week, the Lady Lions softball team finished the 2018 Ragin’ Cajun Classic with two wins and three losses.

The tournament lasted from Feb. 22 to Feb. 24 in Lafayette. Head Coach Rick Fremin said their performance could have been better, especially after coming off a tournament win the week before.

“I didn’t think it was our best weekend, but we did show a lot of fight throughout,” said Fremin. “We played some very good teams. We saw some great pitching, and I just challenged the team on the last day to go out and play our style of ball, to go out and do their very best, compete at a high level, and we did just that by wrapping up the tournament with a five-inning victory.”

The opponents for the tournament included host University of Louisiana at Lafayette, University of North Florida, University of Maryland, Balitmore County and the University of Memphis. Fremin explained the difficulties the opponents posed in the tournament.

“High-level pitching,” said Fremin. “Seeing high-level pitching in every team had very strong pitching in a circle, they are very well recognized on a regional and national standpoint. So, for our hitters to see that type of pitching was good for us to see that early in the season, to prepare us for conference play.”

The team began the tournament with a 4-0 loss to the Ragin’ Cajuns. On Feb. 23, the team fought to win a close game of 4-3 against UMBC. Fremin explained that the rocky start to the tournament may have been affected by their previous TV game against Mississippi State University.

 “We went 2-3 in the event and played some very tough quality teams, and I just think it was probably a combination of things,” said Fremin. “We came off a TV game against Mississippi State where we played an extremely high level, and it’s very hard to continue to maintain that style of play throughout a season, especially being on the road, but for us to end it the way, we did was great.”

After the game against UMBC, the team played North Florida and received a 3-0 loss, but was able to end the tournament strong with a 9-1 victory against UMBC that ended the game early.

 “You always want to play well on your last day, and I think we accomplished that goal,” said Fremin. “And hopefully we can take that momentum to Mizzou ’cause we head there to play another tournament in Mizzou and also very tough opponents there as well.”

Fremin discussed the level of their next competitors.

“Here’s another tournament that has some extremely high-level pitching,” said Fremin. “Mizzou is obviously a power five SEC team. We’ll also face Creighton and Drake. Drake has one of the best pitchers in the nation, so it’ll be a tough test for us once again.”

Fremin described how the program is preparing for the 2018 Mizzou Tournament.

“Get some offensive reps and tweak some things with some of the players’ offense ice technique, their stance their approach in the box and their pitch selection,” said Fremin. “And I think if we can kind of dive into it a little bit, we’ll be fine going into the Mizzou tournament.”