BATON ROUGE — The third-ranked LSU softball team is set to host NCAA Region 3 Tournament Thursday through Sunday in Baton Rouge, La., at Tiger Park.
“Everyone can tell that the excitement is starting to build in the air,” said head coach Yvette Girouard. “This is a very festive place during Regional play. This is what you tell your team they play for and dream about, post-season play. Now they have to go out there and take the game one pitch at a time.”
The LSU Tigers will make their fourth appearance at an NCAA Regional. This will also be the third-straight Regional in Tiger Park. LSU is 7-6 all-time in post-season play.
The Tigers have been awarded the No. 1 seed and will face the No. 6 seeded Cornell University at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday. Arizona State will make its first appearance in Baton Rouge as the No. 2 seed and will face the No. 5 seed Penn State Nittany Lions at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday. Rounding off the pool will be two familiar faces in Baton Rouge. Louisiana-Lafayette has been awarded the No. 3 seed and will face the two-time NCAA Regional champion Southern Miss at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday.
LSU has seen Arizona State once already this year, beating them 4-2 in eight innings. The Tigers are 2-0 all-time against the Sun Devils, with both games being decided with extra-inning play.
The game this season proved to be a pitching duel between Kirsten Voak of ASU and LSU’s Britni Sneed. Sophomore Christy Connor had the game-winning home run in the top of the eighth to drive in the runner who was placed on second base.
The Tigers shutdown Southern Miss 5-0 on March 4 in Tiger Park. Pitcher Ashley Lewis allowed only one hit and sat down nine Golden Eagle batters.
The Tigers and the Lady Cajuns split a doubleheader with Louisiana-Lafayette in front of a record crowd, 1-2 and 5-0. Lafayette’s Melissa Coronado held the Tigers to just one run, a solo shot by Tiger April Janzen. Lewis shutout the Cajuns in game two. She allowed only two hits and struck out a personal best of 12 Cajuns.
LSU has not seen Penn State in action since 1998 when the Tigers defeated the Nittany Lions 9-3 at the Florida State Tournament in Tallahassee. LSU has never seen Cornell on the field.
The Tigers enter the game with a record of 53-9 after capturing the SEC Touranment Title, Western Division Title and the SEC Championship. Cornell comes to LSU with record of 36-16
All LSU games will be carried live by the LSU Sports Network on 107.3 FM and over the Internet at www.LSUsports.net. Sunday’s championship game will be televised live by WGMB Fox 44.