Softball: more high-leverage woes plague series vs. Dukes 

The Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns softball team lost two games at home to the James Madison Dukes in last weekend’s conference series. 

Losing the series brought the Cajuns to 19–22 in overall record and dropped their conference standing to 5–9. 

In a press conference held Apr. 7, Head Coach Alyson Habetz opened by talking about what she views as the reason for the close walk-off losses that have plagued the season. 

“I still think we leave a lot on the table in the sense of, like, there are games we should win and could have won that we didn’t, and it comes down to little things that we need to take care of and we need to get better at,” Habetz said. 

When asked if any strategies have been scouted to increase the pitching rotation’s effectiveness, Habetz shifted the focus to the offense and the urgency, or lack thereof, when ahead in a game. 

“At the end of the day, we’ve gotta score more than they do. I think that’s another thing: being on the road, they get last at-bat,” Habetz said. 

“We have opportunities to win, and sometimes, like, we go up four [runs], and again, we’ve said this before, we can’t just stay with that. We have to continue. We can’t settle and be comfortable with a four-run lead, especially when they have last at-bat.” 

Habetz hearkened back to the Cajuns’ Mar. 30 victory over the Chanticleers as the blueprint for the team accumulating wins. 

“We just have to keep scratching, clawing and putting runs on the board, and that’s what we had done at Coastal Carolina in the sense of, like, the goal is to win every inning,” Habetz said. “Instead of just the game, let’s be intentional about winning every inning.” 

Habetz reiterated that for both sides of the ball, detailed execution was all that was missing. 

“Again, in my opinion, it’s not big things. For the pitching staff, like Tyra Clary in the first game [against Carolina], she threw strikes,” Habetz said. 

“Again, throwing strikes and eliminating the freebies, we’re gonna figure out a way to win games.” 

In the matchup on Friday evening, both teams’ starting pitchers, Mallory Wheeler and Payton List, served up fantastic games. 

The Cajuns’ Wheeler would end the day with six strikeouts to three walks, while the Dukes’ List gave up just four hits all game. 

The story of the game was close calls — for the Cajuns, Kayla Falterman got tagged trying to steal home in the second inning; runners were left in scoring position in the third; and the bases were loaded in the fourth, all resulting in no runs generated. 

James Madison couldn’t get much of anything rallied until the seventh inning, when a walk allowed freshman Raegan Wall to steal second, and a single to right field by Lily Romero took the lead for the Dukes at their last chance. 

Like the rest of the matchup, the Cajuns failed to match the Dukes and muster even a single run, ending the game 1–0 and giving List a 123-pitch shutout victory. 

Saturday’s outing featured loads more offense to start. The Cajuns’ Maddie Hayden scored after hitting a leadoff single and getting bunted over, and Emily Smith was able to run to home after the Dukes’ third baseman couldn’t get up to a tiny mishit, 2–0. 

Cajuns’ starting pitcher Bethaney Noble struggled in the second inning, loading the bases off some tough walks and hits. A hit-by-pitch scored JMU its first run. 

Tyra Clary came in to relieve Noble and tried to salvage the inning, but the Dukes took great advantage of the one-out situation, bringing home three runners off back-to-back hits to take a 4–2 lead. 

Three innings later, Sam Ryan relieved Clary for the Cajuns. 

In the fifth, Sam Roe did what she usually does, collecting another hit and bringing home Falterman to cut the lead to one. 

Unfortunately, in the sixth, Ryan’s save attempt got shattered by List, whose homer to left center brought home three Dukes and blew the game apart. 

A wild last-inning rally by the Cajuns, including a bases-loaded walk and a two-RBI single by Hayden, brought the game within one, but the team, again, fell tragically short, 8–7. 

Next up for the Cajuns is another home weekend three-game series against the South Alabama Jaguars, starting Thursday, Apr. 19.