UL Softball Preview: Central Arkansas

The 20th-ranked Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns softball team will take on the Central Arkansas Bears in their fifth game of the 2014 Ragin' Cajun Invitational on Sunday at 2 o'clock at Lamson Park.

Central Arkansas will come into the tournament with a record of 1-4.

Last week, at the Lady Tiger Classic in Baton Rouge, Central Arkansas defeated Southern Illinois, 2-1, while suffering loses to Murray St. (8-4), Oklahoma St. (3-0), Minnesota (7-0), and LSU (8-1).

In 2013, the Bears went 38-20, overall, including an 15-10 record in Southland Conference play.

Like a lot of schools from non-BCS conferences, Central Arkansas is not a team that beats you with power. That's to be expected. But what's concerning for their offense, so far, is that they've struck out 42 times in the first five games. Granted, they've played some stiff competition, but they're going to have to make better contact, to make up for their lack of pop.

Defensively, the Bears have a good one in the circle, in junior left-hander Clara Clampitt, who is 1-1 with a 1.65 ERA. against some very stiff completion. They're issue defensively, at least early on, has been slowing down the running game. Opponents have stolen 10 bases in 11 attempts against the Bears.

Central Arkansas will play twice on Friday, against Boston College at 9 am and Valparaiso at 3 pm, twice more on Saturday, against Valparaiso at 9 am and Michigan at 11:30 am, and once on Sunday against Louisiana at 2 pm.

The Louisiana schedule for the tournament is as follows:

Friday:  vs. Michigan—4:30 pm  vs. Valparaiso–7 pm

Saturday:  vs. Michigan–2 pm   vs. Memphis–4:30 pm

Sunday:  vs. Central Arkansas–2 pm

You can hear all the Louisiana games on Sports Radio ESPN 1420 & espn1420.com, beginning with the pre-game show 15 minutes prior to first-pitch.