Michael Lotief loves the long ball.
In 2006, the Louisiana softball coach’s hitting system yielded the first 100-home run season in school history (102). Danyele Gomez, Ashley Evans, and Lacey Bertucci ranked in the top 10 of all NCAA Division I hitters.
In 2015, the Ragin Cajuns set school records with 116 home runs and a .652 slugging percentage. Last season, Louisiana hit 108 home runs to reach the century mark in back-to-back seasons for the first time in program history.
But if there is one thing Lotief loves to talk about more than hitting it is the total package junior shortstop DJ Sanders represents.
“She is an amazing athlete. She is an amazing person,” Lotief said. “(Calling her) an incredible athlete doesn’t do justice to her. She is a wonderful woman of character.”
Lotief has had plenty of time to talk about Sanders, the former standout at New Hope High School, in the last few days. On Tuesday, Sanders was named the Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year. On Wednesday, she was named a top-10 finalist for the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award. The award, which is considered the most prestigious honor in Division I women’s collegiate softball, recognizes the outstanding athletic achievement by female players across the country.
“I have done three or four interviews about her since she made the top-10 list, and everybody wants to focus on her home-run numbers,” Lotief said. That shouldn’t be surprising considering Sanders leads the nation in runs per game (1.42), home runs (28), home runs per game (0.58), RBIs (73), RBIs per game (1.52), total bases (149), and slugging percentage (1.088). But Lotief saw the potential in Sanders as a player and the character she possesses as an individual when he was recruiting her and he knew he had to have her. In Sanders’ two-and-a-half seasons in Lafayette, Louisiana, he has seen her grow into the player and leader he knew she could be.
“She has earned that right to be on that list, but I like to use the spotlight to talk about something else,” Lotief said. “She is just a wonderful kid to be around. I am so proud of who she is and I am proud of how she has gone about getting better as a player and also taking care of her business in the classroom, community and becoming a leader and becoming a wonderful person to be around. That is the real story.”
Top-seeded Louisiana (42-6, 23-1 Sun Belt Conference), which is ranked No. 14 in this week’s National Fastpitch Coaches Association poll, will play fourth-seeded South Alabama at 10 a.m. today in the second round of the Sun Belt Conference tournament in Troy, Alabama.
Lotief likely will get more chances to talk about Sanders this weekend. One topic that figures to come up is the fact Sanders earned a 4.0 grade-point average this term for the first time in college. That is a point of pride for Sanders, too, who was a five-year letterwinner in fast- and slow-pitch softball and girls basketball at New Hope High. She was a four-time state champion in slow-pitch softball as an infielder and a five-time district champion and state runner-up in fast-pitch softball as a pitcher under coach Tabitha Beard. She also was an All-State selection in three sports as a junior and senior in high school.
Still, Sanders had to adjust when she went to Louisiana, which is one of the perennial powers in Division I softball. She said in December 2014 that Lotief “changed everything” about her swing in an effort to keep her bat through the strike zone longer. She said the move was designed to help her produce more power.
It turns out Sanders is ahead of schedule thanks to plenty of extra practice and a dedicated mind-set that has helped her become one of the nation’s top players.
“It is better,” Sanders said of her swing. “I can’t tell you what exactly I need to work on, but I am always thinking and being hard on myself because I really do have some stuff that I have to to perfect. It is better than 2014.”
Sanders admits she feels more comfortable at the plate, but she said she doesn’t focus on hitting home runs or all of the attention that has come with leading the nation in so many offensive categories. Instead, Sanders is quick to credit her teammates because she said she wouldn’t be able to accomplish anything without their help and support. Sanders said she tells her teammates how much they mean to her, but she added that words sometimes aren’t enough.
“I don’t think I will ever be able to explain it to them, but I am going to try,” Sanders said.
Sanders also is going to continue to try to become more efficient with her swing. When you have a coach like Lotief who loves hitting and studies it whenever he gets a chance, there always is something new to try or to master. The statistics suggest Sanders is as strong a student on the field as she is off it. As a freshman, Sanders hit .290 with four home runs and 27 RBIs. She improved her batting average to .316 as a sophomore and hit 18 home runs and had 58 RBIs.
This season, Sanders is hitting .401. More than half of her hits (55) have been home runs. From April 8-22, 10 of 11 hits were home runs.
Sanders also has committed only one error in Sun Belt Conference play in 72 chances, and just six in 135 chances this season.
“She is a great defender,” Lotief said. “She makes routine plays. She makes some really tough plays look routine. She runs the defense. She is more than a home-run hitter. She has become all around one of the best players in the country.”
Lotief said Sanders has grown into a top-10 national finalist because of her hard work and resolve. He said Sanders never has been content to do only what has been asked of her. Lotief said Sanders likes to do more, whether it is taking an additional 100 swings or hitting off a pitching machine. He said she has wanted to “push the envelope” to get better as a hitter and as a player.
“She has never been scared to face the adversity head on,” Lotief said. “She is a kid who never backs away from that hard work. She has never been a kid who is resistant to change or ideas or thinking about as situation in a different or better way. She is just an incredible student and an incredible kid to be around and associated with. I am just so proud of her.”
Sanders is equally proud of a young team that has stormed through Sun Belt Conference play and picked up plenty of signature non-conference wins along the way, too. Don’t think, though, that she is going to start thinking about all of the home runs she has hit. Sanders prefers to talk about how she is going to get better as a hitter and improve her ability to hit pitches, like a riseball or a dropball, on different planes. With a coach like Lotief, Sanders always will have a chance to work on her swing, so that is what she is going to keep doing.
“If I start thinking about (all of the home runs she has hit) they probably will stop right there,” Sanders said. “I have to hear about them because people tell me so much, but it isn’t something I like to dwell, and I don’t think that is the best thing to be in my mind before I get ready to play. It will be cool to look back at the end of the year, but right now what is in my mind is what I have to do to help my team perform at the highest level and win the games we want to.”
The top three finalists will be announced May 24, while the winner of the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award will be revealed May 30 prior to the start of the NCAA Women’s College World Series (WCWS) in Oklahoma City.
The USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award is voted on by coaching representatives of 10 Division I Conferences in the 10 USA Softball Regions, members of the media who consistently cover Division I Softball across the country as well as past winners of the award.
Sanders, a two-time first-team All-Sun Belt performer joins former Ragin’ Cajuns greats Christi Orgeron and Lexie Elkins as players in program history to advance to the top-10 list.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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