QUOTES FROM HEAD SOFTBALL COACH YVETTE GIROUARD
“At the end of (last year), my assistant coach James DeFeo said, ‘I think we may have made a mistake. How are we ever going to top this after our first year.’ And I said, ‘You know Toto, we aren’t in Kansas anymore. We’re at LSU and they expect to win national championships.’ We have the highest of expectations for this team. So do they and so do our fans.
“We did lose some critical people off of our team and, in that aspect, the critical people we lost were our leaders. The glue that really kept this team together, when you think about the fact that last year’s seniors had three head coaches in their career. You have to give them a lot of credit for what we did last year. But last year is in the past and we gave them their rings two Saturday’s ago and said that season was done and on to bigger and better things.
“There is no question about this LSU team that the strength and nucleus and core of this team is the pitching staff. When you return a first-team All-American in Britni Sneed, who I think is probably one of the best pitchers in the country and will be before her career ends in the world. And then you add a Kristin Schmidt, who is a sophomore transfer from the University of Notre Dame and a second-team All-American. I think you see right there that our strength is in the circle. And in our game, that better be where your strength is.
“Our infield will be solid. We lost a critical player in Stephanie Hastings at shortstop. We will return with someone who will make all the defensive plays, not only the easy ones but also the hard ones, in Julie Wiese. She was a sophomore third baseman last year for us when she tied the home run record here at LSU. We think before her career is done with, she will be the next highly-acclaimed Tiger.
“The outfield had tremendous speed last year. But we lost Dee Douglas who was, without question, probably the fastest softball player in the country. There aren’t many Dee Douglas’ out there with that kind of speed. But we return two ladies who can still fly in Trena Peel and Aleshia Perry. Trena will be moved over to centerfield where she can roam freely out there. Trena looks phenomenal right now. She looks unstoppable. We have her in centerfield and she is making play after play. Her offense looks incredible. She was on the national team this summer and I think that matured her. She, we feel, will be a true impact player for us and she will definitely compete for All-America honors. We have some real competition in right field and some capable backups.
“We have three catchers who do different things well for us. We have Jennie Reeves, who is our best pitch and catch person. But then we have a young freshman who we just brought in, Lee Ann Danos. She is a mid-season graduate who we believe will be will eventually be the best LSU catcher ever. She has all the tools. She is a big, strong girl who will hit with power, will be able to throw anybody out at anytime once she develops and learns everything about the college game and how fast it is. Then we have Lindsey Howard who is very capable.
“We feel good about our versatility. We feel good about our options. We think not only that our pitching will be the nucleus of our team but also that we will have a tremendous hitting team. James is our hitting instructor and Ashlee (Ducote) works closely with them. They have done a phenomenal job with our hitters. They have gone through a whole season with them, a year-and-a-half of him implementing his system. We have very intelligent, knowledgeable softball athletes. You can hear them in the dugout and on deck talking about pitchers, making adjustments and seeing what the pitchers are throwing at them. We think, offensively, we will be something to watch. Again, we have those options coming off the bench where if one bat goes dead, we think we have two others we can bring in to fill that potential.”