For the third straight year since he returned and took over the club, New Iberia Holiday Sporting Goods coach Shane Faucheaux has guided the Cajuns to the American Legion Sub-regional Tournament which begins Friday morning at 9:30 a.m. when New Iberia plays Eunice at Legion Park in Lake Charles.

And for the third straight year, Faucheaux’s goal for the team is the same �” finish in the top two to advance to the state tournament.

“That’s the goal when you get to the playoffs, finish the sub-regional as one of the top two teams and get a bid into the state tournament,” said Faucheaux.

Advertisement

It’s a goal that New Iberia has had throughout Faucheaux’s tenure.

Two years ago at Fabacher Field and last year at Acadian Park, the Cajuns came within one game of making the state tournament and both times came up short.

“The problem is that we have to find someone who can step up and pitch that third game,” said Faucheaux. “Both times in the past two years we had two starters who got us to that third game, but we didn’t have anyone who could go in that third game.”

It’s a problem that shouldn’t affect the Cajuns this year.

New Iberia finished the regular season with a 19-7-1 record, second in the always-tough American Legion District 3-Central.

While the Cajuns met one regular season goal this year, making the sub-regional, they didn’t win or share the district championship for the first time in three years, which was the second goal of the regular season.

“We fell short of winning the district title,” said Faucheaux. “But we got in the playoffs. In the end, it doesn’t matter if you go in as the No. 1 team or the No. 2 team, you’re in and anything can happen in the playoffs.”

The Cajuns open against the Oilers with the winner advancing to play at 4 p.m. Saturday and the loser returning Saturday morning for another 9:30 a.m. contest.

Faucheaux said the team will leave today and spend the night in a hotel in Lake Charles to be ready for Friday morning’s contest.

“The bracket just fell right,” said Faucheaux, who noted that the second game of the tournament was going to be a game between Crowley and one of the Lake Charles-area qualifiers.

“Hopefully, we’ll just spend one night in Lake Charles and come back Saturday evening for the winner’s bracket game.”

While New Iberia knows its first opponent in the sub-regional, some of the other teams have yet to be determined as District 7-West, made up of the teams in Lafayette, still haven’t determined the first and second place qualifiers for the sub-regional.

Faucheaux said the Cajuns were playing good baseball heading into the sub-regional despite rain forcing the cancellation of two games as well as practice.

“Our big problem this year has been defense,” said Faucheaux. “Our pitching and our hitting have both been there, we’ve just been waiting for our defense to catch up and in the last couple of game the defense played well.”

Coby Landry is expected to get the start Friday with Cody Boutte slated to go Saturday then Lee Hebert in the third game and Kyle Hoffpauir if needed.

“That’s the difference between this year and the last couple of years,” said Faucheaux. “We have that third pitcher this year. We went with a three man rotation with Kyle and Lee taking that third spot. It’s worked well for us and hopefully it will continue through the playoffs.”

Faucheaux also said that this season has been a complete team effort with everyone contributing from Hunter Crochet to Jordan Abney to Bryce Sibille to Nevin Landry.

“Everyone has played a role in our success,” said Faucheaux.