Associated Press 22y

Louisiana baseball, softball teams cooling rivalry

BATON ROUGE, La. -- LSU and the University of
Louisiana-Lafayette will not play against each other in baseball or
softball next season because of a near brawl between the teams
during NCAA regionals last season, officials said.

LSU baseball coach Smoke Laval and softball coach Yvette
Girouard said this week that games between the schools would be
dropped until tensions calmed down.

The LSU and ULL baseball teams nearly brawled during the NCAA
regional finals at Alex Box Stadium in Baton Rouge, which LSU won.

The incident led to the ejections of a ULL pitcher, ULL coach
Tony Robichaux and LSU shortstop Aaron Hill.

"It's better off for the two institutions to take a break,''
Laval said. "Somebody might get hurt here. So, let's cool it.''

LSU athletic director Skip Bertman, former longtime coach of the
Tigers baseball team, supported his coaches' decisions.

LSU made the decision to stop the games, taking Robichaux and
softball coach Stefni Whitten-Lotief by surprise, said Robert
Broussard, ULL's sports spokesman. Broussard said ULL was told
about LSU's decision about three weeks ago.

"It's tough, it's frustrating when you have two of the better
programs in the state not being able to play,'' Broussard said.
"It's sad for the fans because it really is a good rivalry,
especially in softball because head coach Girouard was the head
coach here -- she built the program from scratch.''

When LSU played ULL in a softball regional at Lafayette, a
plaque in honor of Girouard's time at ULL was removed from the
school's Wall of Honor.

School officials are uncertain who removed the plaque. ULL
officials are planning to put a new plaque up if the original one
is not found, Broussard said.

LSU's baseball team was tentatively scheduled to play ULL once
next season, and the softball team was set for a doubleheader at
Lafayette.

Laval said he might try to replace the ULL game with a third
game against Tulane.

Broussard said ULL's baseball team rescheduled an additional
game against Nebraska on May 4 to make up for the lost game.

Broussard said losing the game with LSU would not affect the two
teams' efforts to qualify for the NCAA championships.

"The game with LSU is more about bragging rights and talking
about at the office the next day,'' Broussard said.

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