McNeese Softball Shifts Focus to Defending Southland Tournament Crown

Lake Charles, LA (KPLC) - Last week McNeese Softball won the Southland Conference Regular Season Title for the second consecutive year, and eighth time in program history after finishing with an overall record of 41-14, and a conference record of 21-3. The Cowgirls clinched the title last Friday by winning both games of their doubleheader against Houston Christian with a combined score of 9-0.

Winning the title is obviously a huge accomplishment and is one of the goals McNeese sets at the beginning of each season, but it is only just the beginning as they look to check more goals off their list.

“You know, the one seed, be able to have a day off, get yourself ready to play, is important in tournaments, but it’s not the end-all factor, there’s been a lot of teams that have won the tournament, including ourselves, not coming from the one seed, so it’s just part of the puzzle,” said Cowgirls’ head coach James Landreneau. “It’s exciting for our kids to kind of get a little taste of it, our conference did a great job of being there for the games once we clinched, and give them a little sense of the championship, but at the end of the day, we know where we want to go to, we know what the end goal was, and this is a step along the road, but you know, we’ve got to find a way to play good softball and make sure we’re in the NCAA tournament.”

The Regular Season Title gives McNeese the only bye in the conference tournament, which Coach Landreneau says is important, because it gives them a chance to rest, and get ready to defend their tournament title.

“You know it allows you a little time to prepare, also kids that are kind of banged up, this gives them a day off to kind of heal up and allows us to have a regular practice. You know instead of having to tone things down and get ready for a Tuesday game, I like it from the prep work and being able to work on a couple of things that we’d like to clean up from the weekend, so it’s definitely an advantage right now of being in that situation.”

McNeese will play the winner of Tuesday’s Lamar vs. Texas A&M - Corpus Christi game on Wednesday at 11:00 AM.

For the full Coach Landreneau press conference from Monday morning, click here.

After the press conference concluded on Monday morning, the Southland Conference All-Conference teams were announced, which included several Cowgirls:

First-Team:

• Alayis Seneca, Senior, Outfield
• Whitney Tate, Senior, Pitcher
• Chloe Gomez, Junior, Catcher

Second-Team:

• Ashley Vallejo, Junior, Pitcher
• Erin Ardoin, Sophomore, Outfielder
• Mariana Torres, Sophomore, Infielder
• Rylie Bouvier, Sophomore, Infielder
• Reese Reyna, Sophomore, Infielder

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