CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — After securing their fourth-straight Southeastern Conference regular-season title and the top seed in postseason play, the third-ranked Tiger softball team will begin first round action in the SEC Tournament on Thursday at 7 p.m. CT against eighth-seeded Florida.
The defending tournament champions, LSU (49-9) swept the Gators (32-33) in a three-game series at Tiger Park to open conference play in March, as Florida scored only one run in three games.
LSU has won 29 of its last 31 games, including a doubleheader sweep of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi to conclude the regular season. Florida was swept by Mississippi State to close out the season, dropping the Gators from the sixth seed to the eight seed in the final weekend.
“At this point in the season, we have accomplished the goals that we had set out at the beginning of the year,” said LSU head coach Yvette Girouard. “We won our fourth-straight SEC title and qualified as the top seed for the tournament.
“Now is when it really counts, though, and we know that if we are going to accomplish the rest of the goals we had laid out before the season started that losing is not an option. We will have to be on top of our game, every game. We can not afford to slip up in tournament play.”
As LSU heads into postseason play, Britni Sneed and Trena Peel were named the SEC Pitcher and Athlete of the Year, respectively, while head coach Yvette Girouard was selected one of the Tri-Coaches of the Year.
Along with Sneed and Peel, first baseman Christy Connor was named to the All-SEC First Team. Pitcher Kristin Schmidt, second baseman April Janzen and outfielder Erin Johnson also garnered second-team All-SEC honors for the Tigers.
In addition to the 2002 SEC Tournament title, LSU claimed its first league tournament championship in 1999 and has advanced to the title game for four-consecutive years.
If the Tigers win, they will play the winner of the Georgia-Auburn game on Friday at 7 p.m. CT. If they lose, they will play the loser of that game on Friday at 1 p.m. CT.