Road trip features both jeers, ejections

Cal softball players were jeered for kneeling during the national anthem of a game at Louisiana Lafayette on Friday, then — two days later — alleged verbal harassment and frustration led to benches clearing and ejections.

Six Cal players kneeled before the Friday game. Boos and other jeers — “stand up California” and “liberal wokeness” — could be heard on the ESPN+ telecast and other Cal players can be seen blocking the view of the kneeling players before gesturing to the crowd at Lamson Park.

“We will always stand by our student-athletes for exercising their right to peaceful protest, as well as student-athletes from our opponents,” a Cal spokesperson said in a statement to the Chronicle. “We are thankful our softball team was able to play the rest of its games last weekend without any further incident.”

Cal was no-hit in an 8-0 mercy-rule loss Friday, but beat the Ragin’ Cajuns 3-1 in extra innings Sunday.

The second game wasn’t devoid of drama, either. In a video clip that has gone viral, Cal coaches asked the umpires to delay the game while up 1-0 in the seventh inning because of severe rain before freshman pitcher Randi Roelling threw two wild pitches, which led to a runner on second base scoring to tie the game and force extras.

Roelling expressed her unhappiness to the plate umpire before Cal assistant coach Kailee Cuico joined her outside the dugout and was quickly ejected. As that took place, an altercation occurred between Lafayette’s Victoria Valdez and Cal catcher Lagi Quiroga, who was tossed as well. In addition, Cal’s Ryann Orange went at the opposing bench before being restrained.

“During Sunday’s game against Louisiana, extremely challenging weather conditions with intense rainfall occurred during the seventh inning,” Cal said in a statement. “Emotions run high during a highly competitive game between two great teams, and the conditions led to some frustrations from our studentathletes and coaching staff. We respect Lafayette’s program and thank them for hosting last weekend’s tournament.”