BATON ROUGE — The second-ranked LSU softball team will put its 16-game winning streak on the line when they face Auburn in a three-game series at Tiger Park this weekend beginning with a doubleheader on Saturday at 3 p.m. in a match up of the top two teams in the Southeastern Conference Western Division.
The doubleheader will be broadcast on the LSU Sports Network in Baton Rouge on Country Legends WJNH 107.3 FM and on the internet at www.LSUsports.net.
LSU (43-7, 19-4 SEC) enters the game with a four and a half game lead over second-place Auburn (34-12, 15-9 SEC) in the SEC Western Division standings with six games remaining. The Fighting Tigers need one win over AU to claim their seventh Western Division championship in eight seasons.
“We are hoping for a tremendous crowd as we battle for the SEC West this weekend,” said LSU head coach Yvette Girouard. “We are anxious to play at home. This is by far the best Auburn team in their program’s history and it should be a great challenge.”
In the overall SEC race, LSU holds a two game lead over Tennessee and a two and a half game lead over Georgia. The Lady Vols and the Bulldogs are conceivably battling for the SEC Eastern Division title this weekend in Athens, Ga. Regardless of the outcome of the Georgia-Tennessee series, if the Fighting Tigers win five of their final six games, they will claim their fifth SEC Championship in the last six seasons.
This weekend’s series features two fairly balanced teams, with LSU holding the advantage on the offensive side and Auburn holding the slight advantage with pitching. The purple and gold currently lead the SEC in hits, runs scored, RBIs and home runs and are second in batting average, while AU leads in opponents batting average and is second in earned run average and fifth in strikeouts.
LSU boasts a .333 team batting average with a league-leading 327 runs scored and 52 home runs. Auburn counters with a .274 average, 188 runs scored and 19 homers. While the purple and gold offense has averaged 6.5 runs a game, the LSU pitching staff has not faltered, maintaining a solid 1.61 earned run average. AU comes in slightly better with a 1.38 team ERA.
Louisiana Hitter of the Week Lauren Castle leads LSU with a .399 batting average, which is sixth in the league. LaDonia Hughes is second with a .373 average and leads the team in runs scored and hits. Leslie Klein leads the team with 50 RBIs and is tied with Stephanie Hill for the school record with 12 home runs.
Sara Dean leads Auburn in almost every offensive category, hitting at a .402 clip with a team-best 27 RBIs, five home runs and 12 doubles. Ashley Griffin has a team-best 31 runs scored for AU and has recorded 10 doubles.
In the circle for LSU, All-American Kristin Schmidt leads the way with a 26-4 record. The senior has a 1.54 earned run average with 232 strikeouts. The Louisiana and SEC Pitcher of the Week recorded all three wins for the Fighting Tigers last weekend in a sweep at Ole Miss. Freshman Emily Turner earned a win over Southern Miss during the week to improve to 16-3 for LSU this season with eight complete-game shutouts.
Kristin Keyes is the ace of the Auburn staff, posting a 20-9 record and a 1.15 ERA. The senior has 237 strikeouts and 10 shutouts this season. Holly Currie has gone 8-1 with a 1.93 earned run average for AU, while Beth DiPietro is 5-2 with a 1.43 ERA.
LSU has dominated the seven-year series with Auburn. The purple and gold have taken 24 of the 28 meetings, including four straight and seven of the last eight. In Baton Rouge, LSU holds the 8-2 all-time series advantage and took 2-of-3 in the last meeting at Tiger Park.
The series will conclude with a single game on Sunday beginning at 1 p.m. The game will be broadcast on the LSU Sports Network. In addition, Cox Sports Television will broadcast the game in the Baton Rouge area on cable channel 37.