After putting a cap on a 34-21 regular season record and 16-14 in the Sun Belt, Louisiana baseball has now turned their heads to the Sun Belt Baseball Championship tournament in Montgomery, Alabama. The Cajuns head into this 10-team tournament as the 7-seed, with hopes they can do enough to earn a spot at a regional. Their first game will be a single-elimination matchup against the 10-seed Thundering Herd of Marshall, who finished 23-31 overall and 13-17 in the conference, today at 3pm.

Louisiana sealed their spot in the tournament after winning the series against the 20th nationally ranked Coastal Carolina Chanticleers at home this past weekend. Luckily, this helped boost their resume for an NCAA tournament push. The Cajuns now go into the SBC tournament with series wins over four of the top five teams in the Sun Belt (Southern Miss, Coastal Carolina, App State, and South Alabama). It also brought the Cajuns RPI up to 40th.

While their path to earning a spot in the Field of 64 is not guaranteed, it certainly is not out of reach thanks to the resume they have built throughout the season. The Cajuns won series against three of the current five "Quadrant 1" teams they have played this season (Southern Miss, Coastal, and Arkansas State). Not to mention, Southern Miss was ranked in the top 10 nationally during that weekend series. They also have impressive series wins over "Quadrant 2" Dallas Baptist and App State teams, both of which were on the road. UL finished the season with nine 3-game series wins out of the 14 they played.

What has hurt the Cajuns this season though is some of their poor losses, especially halfway into conference play when the team entered a lull and lost three straight conference series. As a result of poor pitching and execution, those losses to Texas State (sweep), ULM (lost two of three), and JMU (lost two of three) eventually set the Cajuns back into a hole that they had to dig out of. Before those losses, the Cajuns were nationally ranked and held an RPI in the top 20.

That said, the Cajuns will more than likely need to win some games in the Sun Belt tournament to get the likes of the selection committee to strongly consider them for a regional bid, and it starts today against a tricky Marshall team in a first-round "play-in" style game. The Thundering Herd are not a great baseball team by any stretch, but they are not awful either. With the help of a weak schedule this season, they presented a strong offensive game through the likes of Evan Bottone (hitting .387) and Tyler Kamerer (hitting .323), and Jackson Halter (11 HR, 52 RBI). All of that has come from the help of average pitching from their opponents this season (5.8 opponents ERA). Marshall's pitching itself has presented its fair share of weakness with a 6.14 team ERA, playing a big role in why this team has lost a lot of games.

With Marshall's RPI sitting at 179 and presenting a losing record through a weak schedule, a win against Marshall will more than likely be necessary for the Cajuns to keep their regionals hopes alive. UL is just now getting back on the radar for regionals bid, but that is under the assumption that they beat this Marshall team. Given an unusually crowded bubble for the field of 64 this season, a Cajuns loss today would probably drop them well enough to make it hard for the selection committee to consider them for a regional bid.

Should the Cajuns defeat Marshall, they will find themselves matched up against Coastal Carolina for the fourth time in the last week. That game would take place on Wednesday at 12:30pm. The winner will play on Thursday afternoon against the winner between App State and Texas State. Since this tournament (outside of the first round) is a double-elimination bracket, the loser will move into the loser's bracket for a chance at redemption.

With Louisiana being strongly on the bubble for the field of 64, a win against Coastal in this case would almost certainly guarantee them a seed in the NCAA tournament. It would be the final defining statement for the program who appears to have gotten hot at just the right time following the unusual skid they had halfway through the season. If UL loses to Coastal however, it would not be the end of the world thanks to the double-elimination style bracket, but they would definitely need to find themselves back in a game against a team still in the winner's bracket, which would require two wins in the loser's bracket.

For now, the Cajuns will need to focus on their task at hand today, which is to beat the Marshall Thundering Herd and earn the right to play Coastal Carolina tomorrow.