BATON ROUGE — The 11th-ranked LSU softball team takes a break from Southeastern Conference action this week as they host the Centenary Ladies in a doubleheader on Wednesday beginning at 5:30 p.m. at Tiger Park.
The games will be broadcast on the LSU Sports Network in Baton Rouge on WJNH-Jam’n 107.3 FM or on the internet at www.LSUsports.net. The theme for the doubleheader is “Louisiana Luau”, so fans should come for Hawaiian night with some Louisiana style.
The Tigers (27-11) are coming off a pair of SEC series victories over Mississippi State and nationally ranked Alabama last week. Centenary (17-18) dropped a three-game series at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi last weekend after winning a game at Texas-San Antonio and taking a doubleheader from McNeese State.
“It is always good to play a mid-week game,” said LSU head coach Yvette Girouard. “This is a much improved Centenary team. You have to pay attention to the fact that one of their pitchers threw a no-hitter against McNeese State last week.”
LSU leads the all-time series with the Ladies 6-0, all in Tiger Park, but the pair has not met since the 1999 season. The Tigers posted shutout victories in four of those six meetings. The closest contest was a 4-3 LSU win in the second game of the 1998 doubleheader.
Offensively, the Tigers are led by sophomore Leigh Ann Danos with a .315 batting average. The catcher from Lafayette leads the team with a .611 slugging percentage and is second with a career-best 10 doubles. Junior Sara Fitzgerald leads the team with 39 hits, 24 RBIs and 12 doubles, while Tessa Lynam leads the team with 12 RBIs and three home runs in SEC play.
In the circle, junior Kristin Schmidt continues to lead the way for LSU. The junior from Houston has recorded three no-hitters this season as part of her six shutouts. She is also averaging 7.16 strikeouts per seven innings with a 1.00 earned run average.
Centenary is led by Jordan Lansdale with a .330 batting average. The junior second baseman has recorded seven doubles, three triples and two home runs on the season for a .505 slugging percentage. Janis Kelley leads the Ladies in the circle with a 2.65 ERA. The LSWA Player of the Week threw a complete-game no-hitter against McNeese State last week.
The Tigers will return to action on Saturday with a doubleheader against McNeese State at 1 p.m. in Tiger Park in a rescheduled game. A single game against the Cowgirls was originally scheduled for Feb. 26, but was cancelled due to rain.