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Florida Atlantic will threaten us as far as the best weekend rotation in the league is concerned. They have had some injuries to a couple of everyday players who are lost for the year.Quote:
Originally Posted by LARaginCajun
I personally think they'll finish third.
you flying out of West Palm, Ft Lauderdale, or Miami?Quote:
Originally Posted by BirdofParadise
Z.
Fort Lauderdale. Team is flying out this morning. I'm staying to do the women's game and flying to Nashville on Friday.Quote:
Originally Posted by Zeebart21
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Don't like the weather? Tired of soggy yards, flooded streets, fluctuating temperatures?
Be glad you're not coaching baseball or softball in south Louisiana right now, especially on the collegiate level where an inflexible deadline stares you right in the catcher's mask.
UL's baseball squad is 15 days away from its Feb. 13 season opener against Nicholls State. The Cajun softball team has only 11 days before it hosts the season-opening Louisiana Classics tournament.
They're not ready to play, and the weather's not helping.
"It's been tough," said UL softball coach Stefni Lotief. "We've moved practice times, gotten up early to go dump water off the tarp, practiced in the mist. We've done the best we can."
"I'd be frustrated if it was only us," said Cajun baseball coach Tony Robichaux. "But everybody in this area's going through it. A lot of teams we're going to play are going through it."
An unusually wet January has created field and practice problems, and cold snaps on dry days have created uncomfortable conditions at best and injury risks at worst.
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Dan McDonald
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"The thing about cold and wet is it's so conducive to tendinitis and other types of joint situations," Robichaux said. "We've been fortunate that we're healthy right now."
Pitching arms are a concern for both squads.
"We're two weeks away so they have to get their throwing in," Lotief said. "As much as you'd hope that we have summer conditions early in the season, that's not going to be the case. We have to make sure there's extra precautions in their warmups and really take care of their arms."
Welcome to what coaches in other parts of the country - those not in the South or West - have to deal with on a regular basis.
Purdue softball coach Kim Maher will bring her team to UL's second tournament, the Ragin' Cajun Invitational Feb. 16-18.
That will be part of a series of road games, with the Boilermaker squad's home opener not until March 30.
"Last year was my first year to deal with the weather," said Maher, who came to Purdue from the University of California. "We were outdoors all the time there. Here, we were indoors from early November until the middle of March.
"Most of our kids are from the Midwest and they're familiar with the challenges of having to be indoors, or layering up and playing in the cold."
Illinois baseball coach Dan Hartleb won't play at home until March 27.
Part of his early-season road marathon is a season-opening three-game series at UL's Moore Field Feb. 23-25. His team's practice at the "Tigue" one day before that series will likely be his team's first outing on a complete baseball field, rather than an indoor facility or on Illinois' artificial surface football field.
"We can do a lot of things scrimmage wise on the turf and we spend a lot of time on drill work indoors," Hartleb said "We get a lot accomplished indoors, but the one thing that hampers us early is we haven't seen the ball in the air that much. We went south the first weekend last year and started 0-3, and lost two games on dropped fly balls.
"A lot of it's mental, but it's also depth perception if you haven't been on a field day after day after day. There's nothing like going outside and playing the game."
Robichaux said his Cajun team has done all of its normal preseason conditioning, something not hampered by the weather, and has been able to get in most of its workouts. His team held its first intrasquad scrimmage Sunday, only one or two days later than originally planned.
"We've been able to tarp the infield some, the bullpen mounds have been tarped," he said. "We really only had two days since we've been back that we haven't been able to get on the field some, and we've been able to go to the MVP Academy and hit those two days.
"We warned our guys about the weather before they went home (after the fall term), and really stressed to come back in good condition and they did that. That's why we're healthy right now."
"Our field's held up pretty well," said Lotief, whose squad had an intrasquad scrimmage Sunday as part of Fan Day activities. "It's been a challenge to do that and still get in the work on the field that we need, especially throwing. You really have to keep your arm in shape and throw in a sustained pattern, and not try to rush it in the four or five weeks before the season."
The normally-good weather isn't quite as much of a benefit for southern softball teams this year, with new regulations not allowing games until the second Thursday in February. Even more drastic measures go into place for baseball in 2008, with practice not allowed until Feb. 1 and opening games not before the fourth Friday in February. In 2008, that will be Feb. 22.
Robichaux has used visual aids to convince his squad that things could be much worse.
He posted bulletin-board pictures of U.S. troops stationed in Iraq, working in mud and sleeping in dirt holes.
"As soon as you get frustrated, you take a look at some of this," he said. "Look at what they're working through. This is nothing to us."
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Feb 13 still seems early for me but it is getting close I can not wait.
Anybody get their season tickets? We are only 2 weeks away, and I have not received mine. Hope they come soon. I can't wait for this season, especially after such a disapointing football and basketball season.
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Originally Posted by Delphi forum
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The best hour of UL Baseball discussion on the radio resumes this Saturday. You are invited to tune in to <b>The Mr. Bitter Show </b> for the first installment of the Tony Robichaux interview on ESPN 14.20
The first pitch of the 2007 Tony Robichaux Interview begins this Saturday (Feb 3) at 9:00 a.m.
The following Saturday it will return to its original 8:00 a.m. time slot and will be at 8:00 a.m. for the rest of the season.
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<! UL diamond play on TV ->Quote:
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UL's baseball team will make 9 local television appearances during the 2007 season, and could add more if the Ragin' Cajuns reach the finals of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament.
KLAF-TV in Lafayette, channel 13 on Lafayette's Cox Cable, will air eight Ragin' Cajun baseball games.
KLAF's baseball package begins at 2:05 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 24, against Illinois.
UL will also appear once on the Sun Belt's four-game regular-season baseball package, with the May 19 game at New Orleans aired over Cox Sports Television (channel 37 on the Lafayette cable).
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Looking forward to BOP having Tony on prior to games starting.