BATON ROUGE — The eyes of the softball world are focused on Baton Rouge as the No. 6 LSU Tiger softball team prepares to face the No. 3 Alabama Crimson Tide in a key Southeastern Conference showdown on Saturday and Sunday in Tiger Park.
“Except for the NCAA Regional, these games are probably the biggest at Tiger Park this season,” said head coach Yvette Girouard. “This is a golden opportunity for us to catch Alabama in the SEC race. I think Alabama has the advantage here, and the pressure is on us. They have a two game lead. Excitement is in the air and I think this will be a Regional type atmosphere.”
Saturday’s double header is at 4 p.m. and will be televised by the Pelican Sports Network on a tape delay basis. Sunday’s contest will be carried live on Fox Sports South at 1 p.m. on cable channel 26. The LSU Sports Network will broadcast all three-SEC games on 107.3 FM in Baton Rouge and over the Internet at www.LSUsports.net. Free Tickets to Sunday’s game are available at all area Winn Dixie Stores.
The SEC series between the two teams is a key match-up as the Crimson Tide, 34-1 overall and 14-1 in the SEC, leads the conference with only one loss.
The Tigers, 32-7 overall and 12-3 in the SEC, are just two games behind the Tide in conference play. The Tigers are defending back-to-back SEC
Championships and four straight Western Division titles. LSU and Alabama have competed for the SEC Championship title for the past two seasons.
LSU leads the all-time series with Alabama 12-10. The two teams met five times in 2000, with LSU winning three of the contests. LSU won the Friday night double header in Tuscaloosa to clinch the 2000 SEC Title, 3-1 and 8-2, and Alabama took the final games of the series, 5-0 and 3-2. The Tigers eliminated the Tide again in the SEC Tournament with a 5-2 win.
Alabama head coach Pat Murphy began his coaching career under LSU head coach Girouard. Tide assistant coach Alyson Habetz played for Girouard from 1991-94 earning All-American honors. She was a member of the 1993 Lady Cajun team who went 57-7 and earned a third place finish in the Women’s College World Series. LSU assistant coach Lori Osterberg was recruited out of high school and played at Lafayette because of Murphy.
LSU enters the series after taking two out of three games from Arkansas in a mid-week SEC series. Junior Britni Sneed hurled two shutouts to increase her season total to nine. Sneed and the Tiger pitchers lead the SEC with an overall ERA of 0.88 and 221 strikeouts. Senior Stephanie Hastings leads the Tigers with a batting average of .392 and leads the SEC with a conference average of .512.
Alabama enters the match-up following a three game sweep of Kentucky over the weekend. Freshman Jackie McClain was named the SEC Player of the Week after batting .650 on the week. McClain leads the Tide with a batting average of .464. Pitcher Shelley Laird leads the Tide with an ERA of 1.13 and 127 strikeouts.
Following the series with Alabama, the Tigers travel to Starkville for a mid-week series with Mississippi State on April 11 and 12. LSU returns to Louisiana for a mid-week showdown with Girouard’s alma mater Louisiana-Lafayette. The two in-state rivals will face off on April 18 with Girouard wearing purple and gold for the first time in the teams’ meetings.