Alex Stewart Starring In Circle For UL Softball Early On

After two weeks of the 2016 college softball season, Louisiana Ragin' Cajun pitcher Alex Stewart has fans excited.

Coming into the season, the big uncertainty about this Cajun team was the pitching. Well, Alex Stewart has certainly made fans feel a lot better about things in the early part of the season, especially with her work last weekend in the 30th Louisiana Classics at Lamson Park.

The junior right-hander from Zionsville, Indiana beat Oregon twice in two outings over the weekend, her first two wins, as a starter, against a ranked team, in her career.

That's not to say that Stewart has come out of nowhere.

Last season, Stewart went 10-2 with a 2.09 ERA., which led the team, placed second in the Sun Belt Conference, and ranked in the top 50 in the nation.

A second-team All-Sun Belt Conference selection a year ago, Stewart was a key part of the Louisiana rotation down the stretch, posting the win in 5 of the team's last 10 conference victories.

You could see her getting better and better throughout the course of the 2015 season.

Stewart suffered the loss in the second game of the Super Regional series against Auburn last season, but held the Tigers, one of the top offensive teams in the country, to two runs over the first five innings, on the road, giving fans a glimpse of things to come.

This season, Stewart has elevated her game yet another notch.

Through two weeks, Stewart has a 5-0 record and 1.50 ERA.

Most impressive however, is that Stewart has thrown 28 innings without walking one single batter.

And that's nothing new, as she walked only 4 batters in 30.2 conference innings last season.

Something else about the weekend that Stewart had last week that shouldn’t be overlooked is that she beat Oregon twice. In softball when you’re a team’s ace, sometimes you have to beat a team twice, which is hard to do, to help your team win a tough conference series, a regional, or even a Super Regional.

As the Cajuns prepare to take on Texas The in a non-conference doubleheader on Thursday, before hosting Rutgers and Alcorn St. in the Ragin' Cajuns Invitational over the weekend, Stewart will bring in an overall record of 5-0, and a 1.50 ERA., along with 25 strikeouts and zero walks in 28.0 innings of work.

And considering that Stewart tossed 14 innings against a top ten team, in Oregon, those statistics through the first two weeks quite impressive.

Stewart's early season success has some fans breathing a sigh of relief, but in reality, it shouldn't come as that much of a surprised.