BATON ROUGE — Having won seven straight and nine of their last 10, the 13th-ranked LSU softball team will host in-state rival Nicholls State on Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Tiger Park.
The Purple & Gold Challenge champion Tigers stand at 12-3 on the year, while the Lady Colonels are 2-5 on the season.
LSU is 6-1 all-time against Nicholls State. The Tigers lost the fist meeting 3-0 in 1998 and have won the last six consecutive meetings. Last season Christy Connor hit a walk-off home run to lead LSU to an extra-inning win over the Lady Colonels in Baton Rouge.
The Tigers currently lead the Southeastern Conference in batting average at .406 after hitting .475 last weekend. LSU also leads the league in slugging percentage and on base percentage. Having won seven of its 15 games by run-rule this season, the Tigers are averaging over eight runs a game.
First baseman Stephanie Hill leads the team with a .512 average. The sophomore has recorded five doubles and four home runs with a team-best 18 RBIs. Six Tigers are batting over .400 on the season, including Sara Fitzgerald, who leads the SEC with nine doubles and Leslie Klein, who leads the team with 19 runs scored, three triples and five home runs.
Senior All-American Kristin Schmidt leads LSU with a 6-2 record and a 1.98 earned run average. After recording a pair of complete-game shutouts last season, she now has three on the year with a team-best 61 strikeouts. Freshman Emily Turner is 5-1 on the year with a 2.00 ERA. She has recorded a complete-game shutout and 35 strikeouts in eight appearances.
Dione Meier leads Nicholls State in the circle with a 2-2 record, including a pair of wins over Ole Miss in the Mardi Gras Mambo last weekend. Jodi Robin led the Lady Colonels in the Lady Colonels’ last game, going 2-for-3 with and RBI.
After Wednesday’s game, the Tigers travel to Columbus, Ga., for the NFCA Leadoff Classic. LSU will face some of the nation’s top softball competition as 14 of the top 25 teams in the nation and three teams receiving votes for the top 25 will participate in the tournament.
The Tigers will face No. 2 California, in a rematch of a 5-1 loss to the Bears at the UNLV Softball Classic earlier this season, Florida Atlantic, which is receiving votes for the top 25, and Ohio State in pool play.