A historic season will hopefully serve as an appetizer for the McNeese State softball team, which won 40 games, a regular-season Southland Conference title, tournament championship and, for the first time in program history, two wins in the NCAA Tournament to reach a regional final.

“We’re trending right where we want to be,” said Cowgirls head coach James Landreneau who picked up his 200th career win on April 28.  “It’s been a long process. We’ve been knocking on the door at regionals, winning a game here or there.

“At the time you don’t think about the second win because you’re trying to win the final, but as you start to reflect, for the kids, I’m happy. They showed that they belonged to be there. Their backs were against the wall and they played really well against a good Notre Dame team that was in the top 25 all year long, that is in the top 25 every year.”

With a veteran roster set to return, the Cowgirls (40-21), who have made eight NCAA Tournament appearances, including five in the last six years, are hopeful small gains can pay dividends next season.

“I think it helps when you have the culture, you can build on something, not revamp everything,” Landreneau said. “I think that is where we are at.

“What are some areas we can get a little better at as far as practice time, culture, development? How can we tweak those? How can we help kids at the plate, defensively, tweak our pitchers to get a little more efficiency out of them?

“I think our staff did a good job with the culture, the mental side of it — how to prepare for a tough game day in, day out; how to not let a win or loss destroy you. We went through some tough times early this year and this group did a really good job in rebounding and learning how to handle it.”

The Cowgirls lost 14 of their first 26 games, all nonconference, including a pair of four-game losing streaks.

There are a few areas of on-field play Landerneau said he would like to see improve.

“Consistency on defense is one area we can improve,” he said. “At times we were good, at times we’d make three or four errors in a game. At the end of the year we made some good adjustments at the plate. We need to build on those things. We need to not give away at-bats and be better consistently 1-9. We did it at times, but we need to get consistency 1-9. You hope that comes with maturity, another year in the system.”

Eight high schoolers signed during the early signing period in November, and a group of redshirts, will add new faces to the program.

“I think we have a real athletic group that runs fast, something we want to get,” Landreneau said of the incoming class. “It compliments the kind of team we have. We want to play fast. We wanted to pick up a little more power and I think we did that with the class that is coming in.

“Hopefully the redshirts had an opportunity to get some experience. They practice every day, get their reps in and are developing the whole time. I expect them to come in ready to play.”

Landreneau said continued success by mid-majors — one (Central Florida) reached a super regional while three more — McNeese, Louisiana-Lafayette and North Texas — reached regional finals, shows that program quality matters more than a brand name.

“If you stick around long enough and build your program the right way, you can close the gap,” he said. “It’s not who’s a mid-major and who’s not any more. It’s who has a good program.”