BATON ROUGE — The LSU Tiger softball team takes to the road for a 10-day Spring Break trip to the East coast. While on the road, the Tigers will face South Carolina, Coastal Carolina and Georgia.
“We have been gearing up for this trip,” said head coach Yvette Girouard. “We know that these games with South Carolina mean a lot in the SEC, and we are ready to get the job done. The girls know what’s at stake, and they are fired up to the challenge. I think our offense did well last weekend. Now we have to carry that momentum over to this weekend and then the rest of the season.”
LSU’s first stop will be a three game Southeastern Conference series against the South Carolina Lady Gamecocks. The teams will face off for a doubleheader on Saturday at noon. The final game of the series will take place at noon on Sunday. The weekend’s games will be broadcast by the LSU Sports Network on 107.3 FM in Baton Rouge and www.LSUsports.net.
LSU enters the weekend 23-5 overall and 5-1 in the SEC after a three game sweep of Tennessee. South Carolina is 20-10-1 overall and 4-2 in the SEC.
The all-time series between the Tigers and the Gamecocks is tied at 5-5.
LSU split the double header last season with South Carolina. The Tigers out hit the Gamecocks eight to seven in game one, but South Carolina held the Tigers to only two runs, to win 6-2.
LSU came back in game two to silence the Lady Gamecocks, winning 6-0. Britni Sneed struck out 11 batters and only allowed three hits in the win.
Former-Tiger All-American Ashlee Ducote was just a single shy of hitting for the cycle with a double, a triple and two home runs for five RBI in the game.
South Carolina, however, defeated SEC regular season champion LSU Tigers in the SEC tournament championship game, denying the Tigers their second tournament title in a row. Lewis held the Lady Gamecocks scoreless into extra innings. South Carolina, however, scored an unearned run in the bottom of the eighth inning off a Tiger error to win the game.
Following the weekend with South Carolina, LSU will face Coastal Carolina on Wednesday in a 2 p.m. double header before heading to Athens for a three-game series with the Georgia Bulldogs. The Tiger return home to Tiger Park on April 3 for a double header with Arkansas at 5:30 p.m.