UL Softball Now Scheduled to Open Season on Saturday

The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns will have to wait another day to begin their 2021 college softball schedule.

9th-ranked Louisiana, who was scheduled to open its 2021 season last weekend in the 35th Annual Louisiana Classics last weekend, before the event was canceled, and who also had their scheduled doubleheader against Lamar also canceled, will now have to wait yet another day to begin, as the first day of the UAB Green & Gold Classic has been pushed back.

The tournament, which will take place in Birmingham, Alabama, was originally scheduled for Friday-Sunday, but will now be played on Saturday and Sunday only.

The cold and snow in the Birmingham area put a beating on the softball field, and the projection is that it may not be ready on Friday.

Rain is also in the forecast in Birmingham on Thursday, with a Friday early-morning low in the lower 20s.

It is expected to warm up on Saturday and Sunday however, with a Saturday high in the 50s, with a Sunday high in the 60s.

Louisiana is now scheduled to play twice on Saturday and twice more on Sunday.

On Saturday, UL is now slated to face Jacksonville St. at 12:30 p.m. before taking on UAB at 5:30 p.m.

On Sunday, Louisiana will take on Southeastern Louisiana at 10 a.m. before meeting UAB once again at 3 p.m.

The Cajuns are now scheduled to play their home opener on Wednesday, February 24 when they host McNeese.

Last season, Louisiana was 18-6, ranked in everyone's top ten, and number one in the RPI poll when the season was shut down in mid-March due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

We'll never know how things would have played out, but it's almost certain UL would have hosted a regional for the first time since 2016, and very likely would have hosted a Super Regional for the first time since 2014.

Had this been the case, Louisiana would have headed to the NCAA Softball Tournament for the 22nd-consecutive year, while making an NCAA Regional appearance for the 30th time in the last 31 years.

The only year since 1990 in which UL failed to appear in a regional was 1998.

Louisiana is one of only 9 programs to appear in an NCAA Regional every year since 2000, joining Alabama, Arizona, Florida St., Michigan, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, UCLA, and Washington.