BATON ROUGE — The LSU softball team had two things to celebrate on Monday, Jan. 7, as the Tigers began practice for the upcoming 2008 season before traveling to New Orleans to see the LSU football team capture the BCS National Championship with a win over Ohio State.
“So far, so good,” said LSU head coach Yvette Girouard. “Obviously everyone was in an extremely excited mood on Monday morning, and yes, we did practice at 9 a.m. on Monday morning. We went for a couple of hours before we all got down to New Orleans to celebrate the Tigers’ national championship.”
The softball squad continued practices this week, utilizing both the updated Tiger Park, which is entering its final season as the program’s home, on the Anderson-Feazel LSU Indoor Field at the McClendon Practice Facility.
On Thursday, the Tigers began afternoon practice on the field at Tiger Park before concluding the day’s activities under the roof in the batting cages as bad weather entered the Baton Rouge area. Because of the indoor facility, the team is able to continue a regular practice schedule, with only a few minor adjustments.
“We had two-a-days on Tuesday,” said Girouard. “Thankfully we have that beautiful indoor facility that we can go in. We’re managing to get in today. We do this so that we can really stay ahead of our practice schedule because it is so dictated by the weather. Anytime we can go outside, it is a great thing.”
The Tigers conclude the week’s practice schedule with workouts at 9 a.m. and again at 2 p.m. LSU will hold a softball camp this weekend before beginning its normal weekly routine next week for the beginning of the spring semester classes. After spending most of the 2007 preseason indoors because of bad weather and rain, the Tigers are hoping that the 2008 preseason practices will remain outdoors, but the team will continue going indoors as needed.
The Tigers welcome back 11 letterwinners from the 2007 squad that advanced to their second-straight NCAA Super Regionals, winning the NCAA Regional in Palo Alto, Calif., after earning the SEC’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament by winning their fifth SEC Tournament title.
“We’re still a little bit limited right now,” said Girouard. “We have a few people that will probably be ready right before game week. We’ve got those limitations right now, but so far, so good.”
National Fastpitch Coaches Association first-team All-American and Diamond Sports Catcher of the Year Killian Roessner returns for her final season, while Academic All-American Dee Dee Henderson; All-SEC selections Dani Hofer and Jazz Jackson; and NCAA Palo Alto Regional MVP Rachel Mitchell also return to action for the Tigers.
LSU will also be welcoming six freshmen standouts, including redshirt freshman Stacey Woods, who missed last season with an injury. Incoming freshman Starla Guffey of St. Amant, was named a first-team NFCA High School All-American and the Diamond Sports National High School Catcher of the Year, while Jessica Mouse of Tampa, Fla., and Tiffany Shaw of Shreveport both earned NFCA first-team High School All-America honors.
LSU broke ground on the New Tiger Stadium on Oct. 9, 2007, which is expected to be completed in time for the Tigers to play their first game in the new facility in the spring of 2009. The new stadium will feature 1,289 seats? including 587 chair-back seats? and the capability of accommodating 1,200 more fans on an outfield berm.
The softball stadium will also feature first-class team facilities, including a locker room, team lounge, meeting facility, training facility, equipment room, indoor batting cages and umpire locker rooms. The New Tiger Park will be located on Skip Bertman Drive, across from the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine and adjacent to the LSU Women’s Soccer Complex.
The 2008 and final season in Tiger Park will begin with the Easton Tiger Classic on Feb. 15-17. The Tigers will host St John’s, Ball State, Nicholls State and Chattanooga in the three-day tournament.