BATON ROUGE — After taking five-of-six Southeastern Conference games on the road last week, Britni Sneed and Christy Connor were named the LSWA Pitcher and Hitter of the Week as the Tiger softball team returns home to face in-state rival Southeastern Louisiana on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at Tiger Park.
The Tigers (32-8) are coming off a seven-day, six-game road trip that saw them sweep three from Arkansas and take two-of-three from No. 15 Alabama and take control of the SEC Western Division title race.
Southeastern Louisiana (22-21) took two-of-three at Nicholls State last weekend and will be playing its seventh straight road game.
“It is nice to be back at home and in control of our own destiny in the SEC,” said LSU head coach Yvette Girouard. “We are glad that we accomplished what we set out to do and came back to Baton Rouge with a sweep of Arkansas and series win over Alabama.
“We will now step out of conference for a game against Southeastern on Wednesday and one against Louisiana-Lafayette on Thursday. Southeastern is a much better team this year and we will need to give a good effort to beat them.”
In the circle, All-American Britni Sneed fired a pair of complete-game two-hitters and tossed three complete-game shutouts last week. She posted a 3-1 record in four outings against Arkansas and No. 15 Alabama, the best hitting team in the SEC, on the road.
Despite her first loss in 34 SEC games, Sneed did not allow an earned run in 31.3 innings pitched, struck out 46 batters and tied her season high with 17 strikeouts against Alabama. She also struck out 12 in the final game against Arkansas and moved into eighth place in NCAA history in career strikeouts, just 10 behind Trinity Johnson in seventh place.
This is the sixth consecutive week that Sneed has won the Pitcher of the Week honor.
Junior Christy Connor sparked the Tigers from the plate, leading the team in slugging percentage (.647), on-base percentage (.522), hits and RBIs (7) last week as she went 7-for-17 from the plate (.412). She knocked her team-leading fifth home run of the season in the first game against Arkansas and hit a double in the final game against Alabama.
In addition, she added three multiple-RBI games to her total this season with two in the first game against Arkansas, three in the third game against Arkansas and added two in the final game against Alabama. She was also walked five times including one intentional walk.
The Hitter of the Week honor is the first for Connor and the first for the Tigers this season.
The Tigers will face No. 17 Louisiana-Lafayette in a single game on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at Tiger Park. The game will be televised taped delayed by the Pelican Sports Network on Baton Rouge cable channel 10 at 9 p.m.