BATON ROUGE — Riding a 12-game winning streak and standing atop the Southeastern Conference standings, the third-ranked LSU softball team will travel for a three-game conference series at Ole Miss beginning with a doubleheader on Saturday at 5 p.m. at the Ole Miss Softball Park.
The Tigers (39-7, 16-4 SEC) are currently a half game ahead of No. 7 Georgia in the overall league standings, while LSU stands three and a half games ahead of No. 13 Alabama in the Western Division standings. The Rebels (13-28, 6-12 SEC) are coming off their first series win of the season, taking two-of-three from Arkansas at home.
“Hopefully we can continue to play with the consistency we have shown over the last month and a half and not overlook Ole Miss,” said LSU head coach Yvette Girouard. “We need to play Tiger softball and hopefully finish off this road swing on a high note.”
With a .335 team batting average on the season, the Tigers rank second in the league in hitting on the season. LSU also tops the SEC in slugging percentage, hits, runs scored and home runs. The Tigers need just one more home run to tie the LSU single-season record set a year ago.
Sophomore Lauren Castle leads the team and ranks eighth in the league with a .382 average. Sophomore Stephanie Hill ranks second on the team, hitting at a .372 clip, and leads the SEC with 12 home runs, which is tied for the school single-season record.
Freshman Leslie Klein is just one home run behind, having hit 11 on the season. Sophomore Lauren Delahoussaye has knocked nine home runs on the year. With one more, the Tigers will have three players with double-figure home run totals for the first time in school history.
Senior All-American Kristin Schmidt leads LSU with a 23-4 record. She is now one of just 35 players in NCAA history with 100 career wins and is six strikeouts away from becoming one of 25 players with 1,000 career strikeouts.
Ole Miss is last in the league with a .195 team batting average. The Rebels are also eighth in the SEC with a 2.21 team earned run average. DeDe Justice leads Ole Miss with a .290 average. In addition, she leads the team with 22 runs scored and 26 runs batted in and is the only player with a home run this season, having knocked 11 on the year.
Mary Jane Callahan leads the Rebels in the circle with a 1.77 earned run average. At 9-13, she has also posted the most team wins and struck out a team-best 152.
LSU is 23-2 all-time against Ole Miss, posting a 10-1 record against the Rebels in Oxford. The Tigers have won 16 straight over Ole Miss, dating back to a 2-1 loss to the Rebels in Baton Rouge on April 2, 1999.
The series will conclude with a single game on Sunday at 1 p.m. LSU then returns home to close out the season. The Tigers will face Southern Miss in a non-conference game next Wednesday at 6 p.m. in Tiger Park. LSU will then take on Auburn in a three-game series, beginning with a doubleheader on Saturday at 2 p.m. and concluding with a single game on Sunday at 1 p.m.