Louisiana/Oklahoma Softball Postseason Flashback: 2004

Louisiana's Ragin' Cajun softball team will travel to Norman, Oklahoma this week, to take on the Oklahoma Sooners, in a best-of-three game NCAA Super Regional series.

The first game is scheduled for Thursday night at 8 o'clock, with the second game slated for Friday evening at 6 pm.

If necessary, the third and decisive game will be played on Friday night at approximately 9 o'clock.

Louisiana, making their 5th-consecutive Super Regional appearance, and their 7th in the last 9 years, is currently 46-7 on the season, while Oklahoma, making their 7th-consecutive trip to Super Regional, will enter the series with an overall mark of 50-7.

The series will mark the third time that the two schools will meet in the postseason after playing in the 2004 and 2005 seasons.

Today, we look back at 2004:

In the last year prior to the current Super Regional format, 2004, under the old 8-team regional format, Louisiana and Oklahoma were both sent to the Tucson, Arizona Regional.

What made this regional so good is that it featured three schools, in Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Arizona, who were in the Women's College World Series just a year prior.

Louisiana won their first two games of the regional, defeating South Carolina, 1-0, before downing Temple, 8-1.

After falling to the host school, Arizona, 4-0, the Cajuns then came back to eliminate the Wildcats on their home field, 5-0, prior to advancing to a 3-0 win over Northwestern, to send them to the finals against Oklahoma.

Louisiana got on the scoreboard first, scoring a run in the second inning, when Ashley Evans doubled off the center field wall, and later moved scored on a run-scoring ingle by Crystal George, giving them a 1-0 lead.

The Cajuns extended their lead to 3-0 in the fourth inning, when Brittany Bryant and Lacey Bertucci began with back-to-back-to-back singles, before Joy Webre brought both home with a double..

OU fought back, scoring a run in the fourth inning, and three in the fifth, to claim a 4-3 lead, before Louisiana scored three runs on three hits in the sixth inning to take a 7-4 lead.

The Cajuns put the game out of reach over the last two innings, scoring 9 runs.

A solo home run from Bryant started the wheels for the Cajuns and made it 8-4. Four batters later another double from Webre plated Evans who picked up her third hit of the day on a single after Bryant's blast.

Hillary Guidry followed with a bunt single to load the bases and Hebert cleared the path with a double into the left field corner to increase the Cajuns lead to 12-4.

The Cajuns touched OU ace Kami Keiter for eight runs off of 12 hits, as Brooke Mitchell recorded her 45th victory of the year in the circle for the Cajuns.

The win by Louisiana set up an "if necessary" game, with each team needing just one win for a return trip to the Women's College World Series.

It wasn't meant to be for the Cajuns, who were running on fumes, as Oklahoma went on to a 15-0 win, and the regional crown.

The Sooners scored 6 runs in the first inning, and then five more in the second, as they ended a record-setting 60-win season for Louisiana.

What made that 2004 season even more special for the Cajuns is that they accomplished the feat despite losing starting outfielder Jill Robertson prior to the season due to a knee injury, and having starting outfielder Tiffany Grayson available for only part of the year with a shoulder injury.

The 2004 Tucson, Arizona Regional will always be a regional that will be vividly remembered by both fan bases.