Baseball, softball add to festive weekend

It was a great event last year, so the LSU Eunice baseball and softball teams will participate in the second annual Experience Louisiana fesitval.
“I can’t say enough about how exciting it is to have this Festival and the opportunity to play in front of a lot of people,” athetic director Jeff Willis said. “ It affords us a great opportunity to showcase our teams to an audience that might not have seen us play and also be a part of our great acadian culture throughout the weekend. “
Saturday during the Experience Louisiana Festival, softball and baseball fans as well as fetival goers will be able to enjoy the atmosphere on the LSU Eunice campus.
“It was a great atmosphere last year,” LSUE head softball coach Andy Lee said. “It was fun to play in front of that many people.
“Fans of the other teams seem to enjoy the weekend and we were glad to invite them to Eunice,” he said.
The four-time national champion Lady Bengals will take on the University of Louisiana at Lafayette at noon.
The Lady Cajuns, 46-9 during the 2016 season, are coming off of a fifth straight appearance in the NCAA Super Regionals.
A total of 26 players return from the 2016 squad as Louisiana enters its 15th season under Lotief’s guidance.
LSUE and McNeese State University will face each other at 1 p.m. Sunday as the festival continues on campus.
McNeese State’s James Landreneau Landreneau was promoted to head coach to succeed Joanna Hardin who accepted the head coaching position at the University of Virginia.
Landreneau spent the last four years as a Cowgirl assistant including three of the last four on regular season conference championship teams.
This past year, the Cowgirls won the Southland Conference regular season and tournament championships while playing in the NCAA Baton Rouge Regionals where they beat former national champion Arizona State in the opening round.
“It is great to see such quality programs come to Eunice and play,” Lee said. “It was nice to be able to showcase our campus and city to those teams and their fans.
“We are looking forward to compete against top-quality teams,” Lee said.
“I am pleased to see what our team has done so far this fall.”
Saturday will begin with a Bengal baseball alumni softball game at 11:30 am at Bengal Stadium.
The softball game will end at 1:30 pm, at which time lunch will be provided to alumni and their immediate family members.
The five-time national champion Bengal baseball team will take on LSU Alexandria in a 3 p.m. doubleheader.