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Jessica Lemoine may be a freshman on the University of Louisiana softball team, but she knows her program history - and she knows that the Ragin' Cajuns have won every league title the Sun Belt Conference has ever awarded.
"Once you've won it six or seven straight years," Lemoine said, "you want to say that you kept that going during your time. You never talk about not winning the conference as an option."
The Cajuns can lock down their sixth regular-season title in as many years and their seventh title overall this weekend in a three-game series at Middle Tennessee. The teams play a 2 p.m. doubleheader today and a wrapup noon game on Sunday at newly-remodeled Blue Raider Field in Murfreesboro, Tenn.
UL (42-10, 9-3 Sun Belt) wins the regular-season title outright with a weekend sweep, or with any combination of three wins and Florida International losses. Two wins would give the Cajuns no worse than a share of the title and the No. 1 seed for next weekend's league tournament in Miami.
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Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com
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"That's always a goal, obviously," said Cajun coach Stefni Lotief. "But it's more important for us to keep getting better. We've had some lulls and now we're right in the middle of finals, and so we have to get through the day-to-day struggles."
Several members of the Cajun squad had to take early finals this week since they will miss part of the regularly-scheduled exams next week due to the league tournament. That has made practice an iffy proposition during the week.
"This is the part of the year when it's more mental preparation," Lotief said. "With all the travel in this conference, it's easy to wear down physically."
The Cajuns have won all of their four conference series, but three of them have been by 2-1 margins, and UL had to rally for each of its two wins against Western Kentucky last weekend.
And Middle (19-37-1, 6-6 Sun Belt) hasn't been swept in a league series this year after early-season struggles. The Blue Raiders are the league's second-best hitting team (.255) even though well behind the Cajuns (.309) and have the second-most extra-base hits of any team in the conference (115, behind UL's 163).
But it's the Cajun power numbers that remain eye-catching. UL ranks second nationally in home runs (92), slugging percentage (.561) and scoring (7.27 runs per game). Senior outfielder Danyele Gomez retains the individual national lead in each of those three categories and will likely lock up the Sun Belt's "Triple Crown" this weekend as the league leader in batting (.465) homers (26) and RBIs (61). Only one other player in league history, former UL standout Alana Addison, has ever won all three league statistical titles.
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