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Nearly two months into the season, the Sun Belt softball standings give the impression the conference has entered "The Twlight Zone."
The Troy Trojans, on the heels of a sweep of Western Kentucky this past weekend, have raced out to an 11-1 mark.
UL Monroe, WKU and North Texas are all behind Troy, hovering around the .500 mark.
Then you scan down to the bottom of the standings and the conference's bellcow and only nationally-ranked team - No. 21 UL - sits in third-to-last place with a 1-2 record.
<center><p><a href="http://www.theadvertiser.com/article/20090331/SPORTS/903310340/1006" target="_blank">The rest of the story</a>
Brady Aymond •
baymond@theadvertiser.com • March 31, 2009
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The Cajuns (18-7) will get every opportunity to gain some ground on the rest of the conference this week as they're scheduled to host a pair of three-game series, beginning with today's 4 p.m. doubleheader with Middle Tennessee (6-21, 1-8). Game three of the series is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Wednesday.
After the MTSU series, Florida International (19-20, 3-6) comes to town for a three-game set on Saturday and Sunday.
But for UL coach Michael Lotief, this week's schedule isn't as much about the opponent as it is about the games.
"We need to play," Lotief said. "The best remedy to kind of get the confidence back and work through some issues is just to go play."
After racing out to a 14-2 record, the Cajuns have struggled through a rough stretch recently where they've lost five of their last nine games.
And Lotief said the only way to fix it is by getting into game situations.
"You can simulate a lot of things in practice, but the thing that you can't simulate in practice is the thing that this team needs to work on," Lotief said. "It's called game pressure, game situations.
"It's called finding the chemistry of the team, like who can play the 3-hole role. Who's going to be the table-setter? Who's going to step up when the situation is under pressure? There's certain situations that you can't simulate in practice."
The Cajuns are already behind the eight ball on the national level, as they had a total of six games - five alone at the NFCA Leadoff Classic - canceled by weather.
So instead of having 31 games under their belts at this point, the Cajuns have only 25, which is the fewest in the Sun Belt. To put that into perspective, in last week's NFCA Top 25 poll, 10 teams had more wins than games UL has played.
"What's important right now to us is that we have to keep focus on getting better for the big picture," Lotief said. "We're not in control of the weather or the schedule at this point. The main thing our kids have to stay focused on is we know we have to get better."
And practice can only do so much for a team's confidence.
"What's (different) is how your mind and body is reacting to the situation," Lotief said. "At practice, you may be thinking something different than when it's 1,000 people sitting there watching.
"Your adrenaline rush may be different in practice than it is when it's in the game. You have to be in those situations enough where you can just feel totally comfortable, where your thought process in practice matches that of the game."
And, according to Lotief, part of the process is not focusing on who's ahead of them in the standings.
"We know what the issues are and what the areas are that we have to get better," Lotief said. "The worse thing we can do is start looking at the standings, start looking at our opponents, start making comparisons.
"The best thing we can do is stay focused on us and keep working on getting beter and turning some of our weaknesses into a strength. If we can do that, I think this team can be really, really good."
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