BATON ROUGE — Riding a 12-game winning streak, the No. 7 LSU Tiger softball team travels to Tuscaloosa to face off against the No. 11 Crimson Tide of Alabama with the Southeastern Conference regular season championship on the line.
The two teams will meet for double headers on Friday at 6 p.m. and Saturday at 3 p.m. The first game of Friday’s twinbill will be televised on Fox Southwest (Ch. 26 in Baton Rouge). All four games of the series can be heard on the LSU Sports Network (107.3 FM in Baton Rouge) and www.LSUsports.net.
“This is a huge weekend for us as a team to go Alabama to defend our SEC title,” said head coach Glenn Moore. “We are not only working for the Championship, but we are looking to maintain our status in the national and regional rankings.”
LSU enters the weekend with an overall record of 51-8 and a mark of 24-2 in the SEC. The Tigers lead the Tide by one game with Alabama having an overall record of 57-8 and a mark of 23-3 in the SEC.
In 1999 entering the final series, the Tigers were 23-3, and Alabama was 19-7. LSU had to win one game of the series to clinch the title. This year, LSU must win two games of the weekend series to ensure it repeats as champions and captures its fourth straight SEC Western Division title. If Alabama takes three of four from the Tigers, the Tide will seize the title for the first time.
LSU and Alabama have met a total of 17 times in the last three seasons with the Tigers winning nine of the contests. Neither team however could win all four games of a series until 1999 when the Tigers swept the Tide in four games at LSU.
Both teams will battle it out this weekend not only for the conference title, but the No. 1 seed to the SEC Tournament is also at stake. The Western Division champion is awarded the first seed, with the No.2 seed going to the champion of the Eastern Division, either Kentucky or Florida.
The Tigers will play next in the SEC Tournament in Columbus, Ga., May 11-14.