BATON ROUGE — The fifth-ranked LSU softball team prepares to face the Ole Miss Rebels in the final regular-season home Southeastern Conference Series of the year this weekend in Tiger Park.
“We have had a good week, and now we have to carry it over into the weekend,” said head coach Yvette Girouard. “We hope to have the same enthusiastic crowd that we did for the Alabama series. The game times are moved up to encourage football tailgaters to attend. I hope that everyone will be present on Sunday to honor our five seniors.”
Saturday’s games will start at 11 a.m. to allow tailgaters to attend before heading over to the Spring Football Game. The LSU softball parents will be honored between games on Saturday.
Prior to Sunday’s noon start, The Tigers will honor their five seniors – Dee Douglas, Stephanie Hastings, Ashley Lewis, Jennifer Schuelke and Auburne Ziober.
The three-game series will be broadcast by the LSU Sports Network on 107.3 FM in Baton Rouge and over the Internet at www.LSUsports.net. The Saturday games will also be shown on a tape-delay basis by the Pelican Sports Network on Cable Channel 18 beginning at 6:30 p.m.
The Tigers lead the all-time series with Ole Miss, 14-2. LSU last swept the Rebels in a four game series in Oxford last season. The Tigers swept the series in 1997, but dropped one game to the Rebels in both 1998 and 1999.
In game one of the match-up in 2000, Ashley Lewis sat down 10 Rebel batters in the 5-3 win. Former-Tigers Tara Asbill and Shaunte’ Fremin each had a two run home run in the contest. Britni Sneed came in game two to hurl her first collegiate no-hitter, while striking out 12 in the 3-0 win.
In game three, the Tigers had 12 hits off Rebel pitchers Holly Burris and Jennifer Hughes to win 7-1. Stephanie Hastings, Asbill and Stacey Newton each had two hits, while Ashlee Ducote had three. Trena Peel had an RBI double in the final game to send home Newton for the 1-0 win. Sneed only allowed two hits and struck out 11.
The Tigers enter the contest with a record of 44-8 and a conference leading 21-3. LSU is ahead of Alabama (23-4) by one game. Ole Miss comes to Baton Rouge with an 18-36 record overall and 5-19 in the SEC.