Speaker 1: Ragon Cagen's Baseball is heading to start Vegas for the
NC Double A Regionals. Let's break it all down here
on Raging Rundown. What's good, Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to
another episode of Raging Rundown, the show where you will
know all things ul sports. I'm your guy, Ja Marcus Fitzpatrick,
but you know you can always call me fitz And
on today's episode, we will be talking about Louisiana baseball
getting back into the NC DOUBLEA tournament and they will
be heading to Starkville, Mississippi to be a part of
that regional. The field of that regional bracket will be
the likes of Mississippi State as the number fourteen overall
seed lifscom and also Cincinnati along with the Raging Cagents
the Cajuns getting the number three seed in that bracket
or in that field as well. Also kudos to the
Sunbelt for getting five teams in Texas State, Troy with
a part of the last four in obviously Louisiana and
then Coastal and Southern Mists getting into the NCAA tournament
as well. So what we'll do is, obviously we know
what the field will look like. We'll do a preview
of the matchup that the Cajuns will have against Cincinnati,
and then we'll talk about the other games that are
going to be happening in the potential matchups that the
Cajuns could face in the regional over this upcoming weekend
that will begin on Friday at six pm with the
Cajun's matchup against the Cincinnati bear Kids. So, obviously, this
season has been a lot of a roller coaster for Louisiana.
They start off the year playing really well in non conference.
They would end up being ranked in the top twenty five,
and then they hit a bussault in the middle of
the season where they were swept by Texas State. They
would lose a series to James Madison to ULM, and
then after that they flip the switch. They get wins
over Southern Miss, Arkansas State, Georgia State, app State, and
then close out the regular season getting two of three
against Coastal Carolina. Once the regular season was over, we
talked about on the show multiple times how I believed
that this team needed to win the Sunbelt Conference Tournament
or at least get to the championship game in order
to get a regional bid, and that's exactly what they
would go ahead and do. The only loss that they
would suffer would be against Texas State in game nine
of the tournament. They would beat Coastal Carolina two more
times in this tournament, making it four or five on
the season. They beat Texas State twice and then they
lost to Southern miss on Sunday yesterday for the championship game.
So now they find themselves here in the Starkville Regional
and they will take on a Cincinnati team that is
a member of the Big Twelve that, according to Warren Nolan,
is number twenty four. They have the number twenty two
best RPI in the country. They finished sixth in the
Big Twelve. They beat the likes of number four Auburn.
They beat Kansas one time, I believe, and then they
got two or three against West Virginia. They have hit
eighty four home runs this season. That's thirty seventh in
the country. So this is a team that can hit
the long ball extremely well. They are averaging seven point
four runs per game and they have hundred bating average,
which is forty seconds in the country. And then their
runs per game is seventy fourth in the country. So
you're going to be playing against a very quality opponent
that can hit the baseball really well. But as we know,
the Cajuns do really well on the defensive side of things,
and they have been pitching really well also, So I'm
expecting to probably see Cody Brash run out there on
Friday against the Bearcats, and then you'll manage it from
there of how you want to go, whether that's running
Andrew Herman out there. But he's been throwing quite a bit.
He threw quite a bit there in the Sunbelt Tournament,
so he might be limited on rest, but he's a
senior and I know he's gonna want to give it
his all for his team. So we'll see how the
team manages the pitching rotation for this upcoming weekend. But
it should fear to be a really really good matchup
between these two teams. Like I said, Cincinnati, you know,
finished the season thirty seven and twenty and finished sixth
in the Big Twelve standings, And I told you some
of the big wins that they had. They lost the
first game that they played in in the Big Twelve tournament,
they lost to Arizona State ten to two, and outside
of that and when you look at some of the
wins that they have, like they were ten and nine
against Quad one opponents, seven and six against Quad two,
nine and two against Quad three opponents, and then nine
and four or seven and one, excuse me against Quad
four opponents in terms of RPR, eleven and three in
terms of Quad four. I'm looking at two different things
at the same time. So they are kind of in
the middle of the pack as well, very similar to
the way you were, but they didn't get hot in
the conference tournaments exactly like the way that you did.
So this is a very winnable game for you, and
to be honest, this entire site Starkville is a winnable
site for you as well. So you draw a very
winnable regional for you. And now it's just about being
able to go out and continue to play quality baseball
and win three games in four days. That's what it's
going to boil down to. If you keep winning, you
stay in the winners bracket, but ultimately win three games
in four days. That's all it's going to take to
be able to win said regional. So I'm gonna take
a quick time out. When we come back, we'll talk
about the other two teams that are in this regional,
that's Lipscomb and Mississippi State. Will talk about their matchup
and what it could look like if Louisiana can beat
Cincinnati and go to the winner's bracket or if they
have to play through the losers bracket, what the matchups
could look like with those teams. And then we'll also
look ahead to what the Starkville Regional is matched up
with the other regional that it's matched up with in
the entire field of sixty four. We'll discuss it when
we come back here on Raging Rundown. Hey, guys, thank
you so much for tuning into another episode of Raging Rundown.
We're going to get back into the action in just
a second, but before we do, please do me a favor.
Like this video, share it and leave a comment down below,
But most importantly, make sure you subscribed to the channel
and let me know do you think Louisiana is going
to win the Starkville Regional. If you're listening, please follow
the podcast feed, rate the show, and leave us a
review because that's going to help us get in front
of more Raging Cajun fans. Just like yourself. So we
talked about Cincinnati, the opponent that Louisiana will face initially
on Friday here in the Starkville Regional. But the other
two teams that are part of this regional are obviously
in Mississippi State that was the number fourteen overall seed,
and then Lipscomb out of the a Sun Conference. So
we'll start with Mississippi State. They finished with the thirteenth
best RPI according to Warren Nolan, but the fourteenth overall seed.
They finished eighth in the SEC, so they were sixteen
and fourteen in SEC play. They swept a non conference
series against Lipscombe, so they will be playing this team
for the fourth time, I believe this season. So it's
gonna be fairly it's gonna be a winnable game for them.
Not trying to discredit Lipscomb at all, because they earned
their right to be in this regional, but Mississippi State
is expected to win this game. Some of the wins
that Mississippi State has are the likes of sweeping Old
Miss in four games this season, they were four and
six though in the total SEC run the series that
they won, they won four weekend series and a lot
of them were not big wins. I think one of
them was against LSU. If I'm not mistaken, I have
to go back and look. But I have just some
quick notes that I have written up. But this team
can hit really, really well, so it's not gonna be
easy to just run away and beat them. They haven't
won a lot of big games, but they can hit
the baseball really well. So if you're not making it
hard for them and giving different variation of pitches, if
you're just giving them fast balls or very simple pitches
down the middle that they can swing at, they can
hit it out of the yard. They have one hundred
and six home runs on the year, which is thirteenth
in the country. They're averaging eight point five runs a game,
which is fifteenth in the country, and they have a
three to thirteen battened average, which is tenth in the country.
So this is a team that can hit the baseball really,
really well. So it's not to overlook them, but it's
just going to be interesting to see how the Cajuns
could very well match up with Mississippi States the Bulldogs
in this particular regional based on how it falls. Let
me go back and look and see exactly who they
beat in terms of conference plays. So obviously they have
the series over Ole, miss which is a quality one.
They lost to Georgia, the number three team in the country,
which is also what this regional is matched up with
the Athens Regional, So if the Cajuns are able to
get out of Starkville, they will have to go and
be back in SEC country and will take on Georgia
in the Super Regional if Georgia is able to get
out of them, which they should. They lost to Tennessee.
They beat South Carolina, that's not really an impressive series win.
They swept them, They swept LSU, They lost to Texas,
They got one win over Auburn but lost the series,
and they lost to Texas A and M, so not
a ton of quality wins for Mississippi State. In fact,
they are nine to fourteen in Quad one wins, four
and three in Quad twos, twelve and oh in Quad threes,
and then fifteen and oh in Quad four So they
win the games that they're supposed to, but some of
the bigger games are the more quality opponents that are
on their schedule. They haven't played as well against them,
so again this regional is favored for the Cajuns in
this one. That's not to say that they're gonna steamroll
this one and they're not going to lose a game,
but it's very favorable for them to be in a
position to potentially be able to win. Said regionally, the
final team in this week regional is Lipscomb. They won
the a Sun Tournament. Not a very impressive regular season
slate that they had, but they can hit fairly well.
Also they average. They have a two ninety two bat
and average. Obviously, like I said, Mississippi State beat them
in three games during the regular season, including I think
of twenty six to nothing run rule victory over them,
so that should be a wash game there On Friday,
I believe their first game is at one o'clock, so
that should be a wash. But it's thereafter if the
Cajuns are matched up with them in the loser's bracket
or by some miracle, they're matched up with them in
the winner's bracket. It's again going to be about playing
great defense in great pitching. I believe Ul's bats can
be able to continue to stay high because they have
been over tournament play and now as they are carrying
that over into the postseason. I think that their bats
can continue to be hot. So it's just going to
be a matter of thinking up the hitting and the
pitching together and we'll see how things all fare for
the Raging Cages here in postseason play. It's going to
be a fun one there in stark Build. It's about
a five hour drive from Lafayette, or if you're a
Raging Cajun fan, make the trip up. We're going to
see if if we'll be making it up for my
day job at KTC, and if we don't, I'll still
be covering here right here on Raging Rundown. We'll figure
out how we'll be able to get that dumb done
and be able to do some double duty for you
guys to make sure that we're covering it on all bases.
Like I mentioned, if the Cajuns are able to get
out of this said regional, they would be matched up
with the Athens Regional with the Georgia Bulldogs near the
bottom of the bracket, So they would be leaving from
SEC Country and going to SEC Country once again, going
from Mississippi State in Starkville to Athens, Georgia to take
on the Georgia Bulldogs, a team that won the SEC
regular season and also the SEC tournament and can hit
the baseball really, really well. Former LSU hitting coach, If
I'm not mistaken, Wes Johnson is the leader for the
Bulldogs over there. Before you can get to that, you
have to win this one. So we'll see how things
fare for the Raging Cagens as they go through the
Startville Regional. And not to mention, this is the first
time the Cajuns re enter postseason play after missing out
on a regional bid last year. So you're in a
much better position than what you were last season, nearly
getting to forty wins, finishing at thirty nine after tournament play.
So now it's about going and continuing to stack quality
wins and trying to get out of said the regional.
So that's going to wrap up this episode of Raging Rundown.
If you've made it to this point in the video,
thank you so much. Please do me a favor like it,
share it, and leave a comment down below, but most importantly,
make sure you subscribe to the channel and let me
know down in the comments. How do you believe the
Cagens are going to They are in the Starkville Regional
and how will they be able to win it, and
if they're going to be able to make it to
that super Regional against the Georgia Bulldogs. If you're listening,
please follow the podcast feed, rate the show, and leave
us a review, because that's going to help us get
in front of more raging Cajun fans. Just like yourself.
I'm your guys, you're Marcus Fitzpatrick. We'll see you guys
next time.