Two from bayou seek softball title breakthrough
Far from the geographic stronghold of college softball, two teams are living one dream. No. 3 LSU and No. 9 Louisiana open conference tournament play Thursday as top seeds. LSU (46-9) plays South Carolina in the Southeastern Conference, and the Lady Cajuns (52-6) meet Western Kentucky or North Texas in the Sun Belt.
But beyond that, each harbors national title aspirations that have largely been unfulfilled by teams from outside the sport's traditional Western hotbed.
Only three times since the College World Series started in 1982 has a team not from California or Arizona won the title. The most recent: Oklahoma four years ago. But Arizona and Cal rank 1-2 in this week's coaches' poll.
If one of the Louisiana schools is going to break through, it will be done with homegrown talent. Both have been built with players who mostly hail from the Bayou State or neighboring Texas. All 17 players on the Cajuns roster come from the two states, and LSU has just five of its 14 from elsewhere.
The similarities extend into the coaches' offices with the teams led by women with close ties. UL-Lafayette coach Stefni Lotief played for the Cajuns under Yvette Girouard, now the LSU coach.
The Cajuns have been to 13 NCAA tournaments and made the World Series four times, including last year. The Tigers have made the tournament the last six seasons, with one CWS appearance.
Each boasts outstanding pitching. The Cajuns are led by junior Brooke Mitchell (38-3 with 10 shutouts and a 0.59 ERA), who set a school record for victories and has 451 strikeouts.
LSU has senior Kristin Schmidt (28-5 with 10 shutouts, 255 strikeouts and a 1.41 ERA).
Wooed away
Nobody has been closer to both programs than Girouard, who has been with the Tigers four seasons after starting the program at Louisiana-Lafayette, her alma mater, in the fall of 1981.
In her two decades as the Cajuns coach, Girouard built a program that started with "no bats, no balls, no home field and no uniforms" and a $3,000 annual budget into one of the nation's premier powers. Her Cajuns teams made the NCAA regionals 10 times and advanced to three World Series.
"We got lucky on the recruiting trail, landed some good players and just got better and better," says Girouard, who has won 970 games and lost 299 in her career. "It was a case of hometown girls doing good."
Girouard had twice spurned coaching offers from LSU, saying she was too emotionally attached to UL-Lafayette. But when the Tigers beckoned again four years ago, she felt a new opportunity was the right move, personally and professionally. She immediately continued her success at LSU by becoming the first SEC coach to lead a team to back-to-back league tournament championships and taking the club to its first World Series appearance in 2001.
The Tigers' run of excellence, which includes this year's SEC regular-season title, might be best personified by Stephanie Hill, who came to LSU on an academic scholarship, walked on to the team last season after being cut the year before and is now hitting .364 with 12 home runs, tied for the SEC lead with three others, including teammate Leslie Klein.
"I was never expecting this kind of year; it's really been unbelievable," says Hill, a sophomore athletically who plans to take on a double major so she can stay in school an extra year to use all four seasons of eligibility.
Stayed at home
To replace Girouard after the 2000 season, UL turned to one of her greatest players. Lotief had been a star pitcher for the Cajuns from 1987-90, winning 78 games and sporting a 0.66 career ERA. She later was an assistant coach at her alma mater.
Along with her husband, Michael Lotief, who became co-head coach last season after spending two years as a volunteer assistant, she has seen the Cajuns' success continue. Her teams have compiled a 200-40 record and won the Sun Belt regular season and conference titles each year. This season's team became the first to post a perfect record (18-0) in Sun Belt play.
"One thing that attracted me to the program is knowing how committed the kids here are," Stefni Lotief says. "It takes somebody special to play here. (But) I wasn't going to do it without my husband, who I know is one of the best hitting coaches."
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By Jack Carey
USA TODAY
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