BATON ROUGE — Following a three game sweep of the Alabama Crimson Tide, the LSU Tigers now look to hold on to their one game lead in the Southeastern Conference as they travel to Starkville for a three-game mid-week series with Mississippi State on Wednesday and Thursday.
“We have to bring the intensity from the Alabama series with us,” said head coach Yvette Girouard. “We were ready to play and focused and it paid off. We need that again and we will do fine this week.”
The LSU Sports Network will broadcast the series on 107.3 in Baton Rouge and over the Internet at www.LSUsports.net. Wednesday’s doubleheader begins at 5 p.m., and Thursday’s contest is at 4 p.m.
The Tigers are 14-1 all-time against the Bulldogs and have swept them the past two seasons. In game one of the 2000 series, LSU blasted three home runs out of Bulldog Diamond to top the Dogs 8-0 in five innings. Former-Tiger Shaunte’ Fremin, Ashley Lewis and Trena Peel each had a shot. Lewis also hurled a two-hitter to pick up the win.
Sneed came in game two and went the 10-inning distance to lead LSU to an 8-4 win. She sat down 10 Mississippi State batters in the process. LSU hit four doubles off State pitcher Jennifer Pursell, who gave up 11 hits to the Tigers.
In the third game of the series, former-Tigers Tara Asbill and Fremin led LSU with two doubles. Lewis picked up the win for the Tigers, 9-4.
LSU completed the sweep with a 7-1 victory in game four. Fremin finished off the day with two more doubles. Former-Tigers Ashlee Ducote and Stacey Newton each had a triple and Asbill hit a home run in the victory.
LSU enters the series with a record of 35-7 overall and 15-3 in the SEC. Junior Britni Sneed was named the SEC Pitcher of the Week after she hurled four shutouts against Arkansas and Alabama.
The Tiger pitchers lead the SEC with an overall ERA of 0.84, and Sneed has a team-leading ERA of 0.74 and 244 strikeouts.
Senior Stephanie Hastings leads the Tigers with a batting average of .383 and an SEC average of .471. Senior Dee Douglas, who is second on the team with a batting average of .345, is now tied with former Tiger Tara Asbill with 192 career runs.
After returning to Louisiana, the Tigers will take on in-state rival Louisiana-Lafayette on Wednesday, April 18 at 5:30 p.m. This is the first season in the Lady Cajun program’s 21 years of existence that Yvette Girouard is not the leader. Girouard started the program and was the head coach at Lafayette for 20 years before coming to be the Tigers head coach this season.