BATON ROUGE — The LSU Tiger softball team inched up a spot to No. 4 in the May 2 release of the USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 poll following a three-game sweep of Ole Miss over the weekend. The ranking is a season high and ties the team’s highest ranking since the program was reinstated in 1997.
“This is an honor and a tribute to this group of athletes,” said head coach Yvette Girouard. “These young ladies work so hard and bust their tails each time they come out to the ballpark.”
The Tigers are 47-8 on the season and lead the Southeastern Conference with a record of 24-3. LSU needs one win in the three-game series over Auburn this weekend to clinch its third consecutive SEC Championship and its fifth consecutive Western Division title.
The LSU pitchers are leading the SEC with a combined ERA of 0.78 and are ranked fifth in the nation. Junior Britni Sneed is tied for 12th nationally with a team-low ERA of 0.69, and senior Ashley Lewis has an ERA of 0.85 to come in at No. 22. Sneed is also tied for fifth in the most victories category with 28 wins, an LSU single season record. She is eighth on the list for most strikeouts per seven innings with an average of 10.4 a game. Sneed recently shattered her previous single-season record of 278 on April 24 and her count now stands at 301 for the season.
The Tiger bats have come alive lately and are now ranked ninth in the NCAA stats with a team average of .306. LSU is led by senior All-American Stephanie Hastings with an average of .384. Hastings has a team-high 66 hits, 50 runs scored, 13 doubles and 42 RBI. Senior Dee Douglas is second on the team with an average of .342 and leads the team with 30 stolen bases. Junior Trena Peel has hit well lately to improve her batting average to .333. She is second on the team with six home runs and 20 stolen bases.
Two other SEC schools are also ranked in the top 25 poll. Alabama is ranked seventh, and South Carolina jumped up two spots to No. 21 after taking two games from the Crimson Tide over the weekend.
The Tigers travel to Auburn, Ala. to face the Auburn Tigers on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday’s doubleheader will start at 5 p.m., and the LSU Sports Network will broadcast the games on 107.3 FM in Baton Rouge and over the Internet by www.LSUsports.net. Sunday’s start is scheduled for 1 p.m. and will also be carried by the LSU Sports Network.