MONROE, La. -- The final weekend of ULM's regular season seems to almost always involve the rivals from UL-Lafayette. This year is no different. The 21st-ranked Ragin' Cajuns visit the ULM Softball Complex riding a 19-game winning streak.
Saturday's doubleheader begins at 4 p.m. The series concludes Sunday at 1 p.m. Prior to the matinee, the Warhawks will honor the three graduating seniors.
ULM (19-30, 3-17 Sun Belt) is well entrenched in the eighth spot in the Sun Belt tournament and have a two-game advantage over Middle Tennessee in the win column. Should the teams be tied, the Warhawks have the tie-breaker since they took two games from the Blue Raiders earlier this year. Middle Tennessee battles Western Kentucky in a doubleheader Saturday.
While the Warhawks have struggled at the plate of late, sophomore Alexis Cacioppo has been the cog of the offense. She is hitting .419 against Sun Belt opponents with two doubles, a triple and a pair of homers. Her .651 slugging percentage in league games is 350 points higher than her next-closest teammate. Cacioppo leads the team in overall batting average, hitting at a.311 clip and slugging .549. She has a team-high 22 RBI.
LAST TIME OUT: ULM finally got on the right side of the win-loss column, picking up a pair of victories in nonconference battles against Jackson State and Central Arkansas. Unfortunately, the Warhawks were dealt no-hitters on the front and back end of last week's three game set at North Texas. In the middle game, ULM nearly surpassed the Mean Green in an 8-7 thriller.
SCOUTING THE CAJUNS: While UL-Lafayette (37-11, 16-4 Sun Belt) ranks in the top three in every stat category in the Sun Belt, the Ragin' Cajuns sit in third in the standing coming in to the weekend. Brianna Cherry leads the team--and the league--with a .411 batting avg. while teammate Sarah Draheim is slugging .743. Shellie Landry has a team-best 51 RBI and 14 homers. As a team, the Cajuns are hitting .330. In the circle, Jordan Wallace has handled a vast majority of the innings. She is 24-6 on the season with a blistering 1.77 ERA. She has fanned 283 while holding opponents to a .174 batting average. Victoria Brown has seen the most innings off the bench, appearing in 18 contests.
WARHAWKS ONLINE: Follow live stats at ULMWarhawks.com, get updates via Facebook (ULM Warhawks) and through Twitter (@ULMWarhawks). A free live video stream is available on ULMWarhawks.com.
WARHAWKS AT HOME: ULM wraps up the regular season at home against UL-Lafayette this weekend. The Warhawks are 8-7 in Monroe this season, including a pair of wins in conference play.
BASE THIEVES: In 2013, ULM is 78-of-102 in stolen bases. The mark is best in the conference. ULM finished the 2012 campaign with 105 stolen bases, the second highest total in the Sun Belt and also a school record. Base runners were caught just 20 times last season. Meanwhile, ULM allowed just 44 steals on 56 attempts-the third lowest in the league.
THREE'S THE MAGIC NUMBER: ULM is 14-9 when scoring three or more runs this season.
SALANOA'S SUCCESS: Senior Janel Salanoa continues to be one of the toughest to strike out in the country. She ranks 22nd in the category this season. In her career, she has 19 home runs and is now one long ball away from tying Megan Miller for sixth all-time in program history.
PROGRAM MILESTONES: ULM won its 800th game as a program and its 50th Sun Belt contest by sweeping Middle Tennessee Friday, Mar. 29.
AT THE HELM: Rosemary Holloway-Hill is in her 29th season as head coach. She won her 800th game as a head coach at any level in game one of the Middle Tennessee twin bill. She is joined in the dugout by Associate Head Coach Sara Vogt. This is Vogt's third season in the role and fifth overall at ULM.
FAMILIAR FACE: Back in January, ULM head coach Rosemary Holloway-Hill announced the addition of Lindsay Rittenhouse-Becton to the staff as the Warhawks' pitching coach. Rittenhouse-Becton graduated from ULM in 2008 as the school's all-time saves leader.
VETS & ROOKIES: The 2013 Warhawks feature 10 returning players and nine newcomers, including eight freshmen. Four of the eight freshmen were high school teammates at Hahnville (La.) High School, where together they were state champions in 2011 and runners-up in 2010 and 2012. Three other Warhawks have played on state championship squads.
MAKING THE GRADE: ULM Softball posted a 3.478 GPA in the Fall 2012 semester. It was the highest team GPA among all ULM sports teams. The Warhawks 2011-12 team GPA ranked 41st in the Division I, according to the NFCA. That was one spot higher than Stanford and just below 2013 opponent St. Louis.
PRESEASON PICKS: The Warhawks were picked to finish eighth in the Sun Belt by the conference head coaches. UL-Lafayette was unanimously picked to repeat as Sun Belt champions.
PRESEASON AWARDS: Senior 1B Janel Salanoa was named to the CollegeSportsMadness.com All-Sun Belt second team earlier this year.
QUOTABLE: “I feel like this team belongs, and you'll see new and exciting things happen from them.” - Rosemary Holloway-Hill on the 2013 Warhawks.
