BATON ROUGE, La. – The No. 4 ranked LSU softball team will host the first Purple and Gold Challenge at Tiger Park, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
LSU will play host to No. 10 Southern Mississippi, Baylor and Alabama A&M. The Tigers met Southern Miss at the 1999 NCAA Regional last May with the Eagles defeating LSU, 4-3. This will be the first meeting for the Tigers against Baylor and Alabama A&M.
“We are focused and ready to face the competition this weekend,” said head coach Glenn Moore. “The girls have had a good week of practice and are ready to improve their game to win key ball games.”
The action will begin Friday with Alabama A&M facing Baylor at 1 p.m. Southern Miss will play its first pool game against Alabama A&M at 3 p.m. The host Tigers will open play against Baylor at 5 p.m. followed by the LSU-Southern Miss night cap at 7 p.m.
LSU is 9-1 after posting a second place finish at the Texas Invitational in Austin, Texas last weekend. The Tigers defeated Washington, which was No. 2 and is now No. 1, 4-2 on Friday but lost to them 4-1 in the championship game on Sunday. LSU also defeated Texas and South Florida in the tournament.
Two Tigers tied the career home run record of 16 held by Tyra Perry during the tournament at Texas. Senior shortstop Tara Asbill launched one over the left field wall against Washington to bring her career total to 16. Senior third baseman Ashlee Ducote hit a game-winning grand slam in the bottom of the eighth against Texas to set her total at 16 also.
Tiger pitcher Britni Sneed tied her single game strikeout record which she set the previous weekend against McNeese State. Sneed had 13 strikeouts against South Florida on February 19 to lead the Tigers to a 5-0 win.
| Friday, Feb. 25 | |
| Alabama A&M vs. Baylor | 1 p.m. |
| Southern Miss vs. Alabama A&M | 3 p.m. |
| Baylor vs. LSU | 5 p.m. |
| LSU vs. Southern Miss. | 7 p.m. |
| Saturday, Feb. 26 | |
| LSU vs. Alabama A&M | 10 a.m. |
| Southern Miss. vs. Baylor | Noon |
| Semi Final 2 vs 3 | 4 p.m. |
| Semi Final 1 vs 4 | 6 p.m. |
| Sunday, Feb. 27 | |
| Consolation | 10 a.m. |
| Championship | 12:30 p.m. |