LAFAYETTE – The Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns Softball team will start the year among the group of teams that are ranked in the D1Softball Top 25 preseason rankings.
 
D1Softball released its first ranking for the upcoming 2023 collegiate softball season on Tuesday, as Louisiana was listed at No. 20 in the poll.
 
The Ragin' Cajuns (47-13, 23-4 Sun Belt in 2022) are coming off their third consecutive Sun Belt Conference regular season and tournament championships, and have appeared in every edition of the organization's preseason rankings.
 
It marks the 20th consecutive season in which Louisiana will be preseason ranked by at least one national media outlet. The program has been listed in every edition of the ESPN.com/USA Softball preseason poll which began in 2006.
 
Louisiana has participated in every NCAA since 1999 and will face a total of 20 autonomy five opponents throughout the season. There are nine (9) teams listed in the 2023 D1Softball Preseason Top 25 that appear on the Ragin’ Cajuns’ season schedule: No. 2 UCLA, No. 3 Oklahoma State, No. 4 Florida State, No. 5 Florida, No. 8 Arkansas, No. 14 Texas, No. 15 UCF, No. 17 LSU and No. 25 Ole Miss.
 
Louisiana is coming off the program's 23rd consecutive 40-win season and NCAA Tournament appearance. In the 2022 season, the Ragin' Cajuns placed a conference-high nine players on the All-Sun Belt team, produced five NFCA All-Central Region performers, recorded a program-record .351 season batting average, and generated the most home runs in head coach Gerry Glasco's tenure (82).
 
The Ragin’ Cajuns will compete in the TaxAct Clearwater Invitational from Feb. 16 to Feb. 19 where they will face Indiana, Michigan, Oklahoma State, Arkansas, UCLA and Florida State. They will then travel to Orlando to face-off with UCF on Feb. 21. The bulky non-conference schedule will also feature a home and away with LSU as well as a pair of games with Florida and Texas on the road.
 
As he heads into Year No. 6 guiding the Ragin' Cajuns, Glasco aims to continue molding his influx of young talent - the bulk from the No. 1 recruiting class that debuted in Spring 2022 - into a strong and durable national postseason contender.
 
Last spring, Glasco directed and mentored a lineup that featured at most two upperclassmen and as many as five freshmen and developed them into a championship and NCAA Tournament team. Despite the youthfulness, Louisiana advanced to Championship Sunday of the NCAA Clemson Regional. Fast forward to now, and the youthful Ragin' Cajuns group is a year wiser and still has many other veteran pieces in place to form a dangerous combination.
 
While they lose reigning Sun Belt Player of the Year Melissa Mayeux, they return three key pieces to last season's pitching success in Meghan Schorman, Kandra Lamb and Sam Landry. The returners are headlined by last season’s Newcomer of the Year and top hitter for average Jourdyn Campbell (.392). The list of returners also features First Team All-Conference members Sophie Piskos and Karly Heath, leading home run hitters Alexa Langeliers and Heath (13 each), leading run-producer Stormy Kotzelnick (51 RBI) and stolen-bases leader Maddie Hayden (28-of-34).