Good Times: Cowgirls look to continue success at SLC tournament
Warren Arceneaux
The Southland Conference Softball Tournament has been good to McNeese, with the Cowgirls winning three straight championships from 2016-18 before finishing third in 2019, the most recent edition of the tournament.
This year the Cowgirls (30-24, SLC 18-9) enter as the third seed and will open at 4 p.m. today against the winner of Game 1 between No. 6 Houston Baptist (22-16, 15-12) and No. 7 Sam Houston State (18-19,14-13). The doubleelimination tournament is being held at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond.
Stephen F. Austin (34-10, 25-2) is the top seed, followed by Central Arkansas (34-17, 21-6).
McNeese won each of its final four conference series and ended the regular season by winning 12 of its final 15 games.
Head coach James Landreneau said he relishes the opportunity to compete with the best teams in the conference.
“If this doesn’t get your juices going, then you shouldn’t be in the sport, you shouldn’t coach, you shouldn’t play,” he said.
“You’re playing for a championship title. It is the ultimate competition, you’ve got the best eight teams in the conference going at it. There’s going to be one winner. Can you keep your team in the moment as a coach and make sure they take it one game at a time? For the player, can you play one pitch at a time? If we can do those things, that is the game.
“That is the competition side of it, who can stay focused, who can stay locked in. It is a talented group if you take all eight times. It is fun going into this thing knowing that it is wide open.
“To me, ultimately, it is why you practice and why you work. It is for the chance for competition, to get to showcase your skills and your team. Right now our team is motivated and excited to play in the tournament. We know it is going to be a battle but that is why you sacrifice so much time, to be in these kind of moments.”
A deep pitching staff gives Landreneau confidence the Cowgirls can make a run at another tournament title and accompanying NCAA tournament bid.
“Being a 3-seed, we are happy to be in that spot,” he said.
“I like our pitching staff, our depth, it is a versatile group. I like they way they are pitching, coming off a weekend where we played three games with zero walks, that is a big thing for us. We were attacking the zone and have confidence in all four (Jenna Edwards, Saleen Flores, Ashley Vallejo and Whitney Tate) of our pitchers.
“They all have big game experience, all been in the moment against big teams in big situations. I know they are prepared for the moment and excited to pitch. We can come at you a lot of different ways — a lot of different speeds, some are up, some are down. We should be able to play the matchup game pretty well. We’ve got to play good defense behind them.”
McNeese third baseman Haylee Brinlee was named to the Southland Conference first team on Monday.