20 Great Things From The 2017 UL Softball Season: DJ Sanders

The Louisiana Ragin’ Cajun softball team had another great season in 2017.

Louisiana finished their season with an overall record of 47-8, while capturing both the regular season and postseason Sun Belt Conference titles.

The Cajuns appeared in an NCAA Regional for the 19th consecutive appearance, including their and 27th in the last 28 seasons.

It was a terrific season, with many memories.

That being said, over the summer, I’m going to try to focus on 20 things that I took away from the season.

Last week, I featured Alex Stewart.

Today, I spotlight DJ Sanders.

Simply put, Sanders put together one of the best seasons in school history in 2017.

A native of Columbus, Mississippi, Sanders hit a .388, to go along with 29 home runs and 82 runs batted in, both of which led the nation, while matching the NCAA single-season grand slam record with six.

That production earned Sanders a long list of accolades, including NFCA Division I First Team All-American, NFCA All-Central Region, Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year and Louisiana Collegiate Softball Hitter of the Year honors, while being named as a Top Ten Finalist for the NFCA Player of the Year Award..

Sanders was also one of four softball players in the country to be nominated for the prestigious Softball Honda Award, given each year by the NFCA to the best female athlete in each of the 12 NCAA-sanctioned sports.

After finishing just one homer short of becoming only the third UL softball player to ever crush 30 long balls in a single season, Sanders will be striving to reach that number in her senior season next year.

For her to surpass her exploits of this season is going to be extremely difficult to do.

That being said, I wouldn't bet against her.