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.