BATON ROUGE — The LSU softball team will host the 2008 Southeastern Conference Tournament and be in action for 19 regular season games and two pre-conference tournaments at Tiger Park. SEC Tournament tickets, along with LSU season and individual game tickets, will go on sale on Jan. 28 to catch all the action.
The SEC Tournament will be held at Tiger Park for the first time. The three-day single-elimination tournament will determine the league’s automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament. LSU has advanced to the championship game eight times in the last nine seasons, winning the title an unprecedented five times, including last season when the Tigers defeated Florida, 1-0, in nine innings.
The Tournament, which features the top eight teams in the league regardless of division, will begin on Thursday, May 8 with games at 11 a.m., 1:30 p.m., 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. The semifinals will be played on Friday, May 9 at 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. The championship game will be held on Saturday, May 10 at 12:30 p.m. and be televised on Fox Sports.
Tickets for the tournament will go on sale at the LSU Ticket Office, along with regular season tickets, on Jan. 28. Tournament books are available for $20 each for adults and $10 each for youth between the ages of 3 and 12. All children under three get into Tiger Park for free.
Season tickets will be available for $60 for reserved seats, while single-game tickets are available at a cost of $5 for adults and $3 for youth. Fans are encouraged to get their season tickets this season to guarantee great seats in the new Tiger Park for next season. Fans can purchase tickets online at the official web site of LSU Athletics, www.LSUsports.net, at the ticket office or call (225) 578-2184 or (800) 960-8587. LSU students, faculty and staff are admitted free to regular season games with an LSU ID.
The Tigers will make their first television appearance of the season on March 8 as LSU hosts Georgia at 1 p.m. on Cox Sports Television (cable channel 37). On March 11, Cox Sports will broadcast the Tigers’ game against Troy at 6 p.m. in Tiger Park.
LSU will have its game against Auburn on March 22 at 1 p.m. televised on Cox Sports, before the network also televises the Tigers’ game against Ole Miss on April 13 at 1 p.m. On April 20, Fox Sports will broadcast LSU’s game at Tennessee at noon as part of the SEC-TV package.
The final regular season televised game of the year will be on April 27 at home against Arkansas at 1 p.m. For the 11th-straight year, Fox Sports will also televise the championship game of the SEC Tournament on May 10 at 12:30 p.m.
The Tigers will open the season at home on Friday, Feb. 15 in the Easton Tiger Classic. LSU will begin play at 3:30 p.m. against St. John’s before taking on Ball State at 5:45 p.m. The Tigers will also face Nicholls State and Chattanooga as part of the three-day tournament.
After mid-week games against Southeastern Louisiana on Feb. 19 and UL-Monroe on Feb. 27; the Tigers will be at home to host the Easton Purple & Gold Challenge from Feb. 29-March 2. LSU will host Southern Miss, South Alabama, Penn State and Tulsa as part of that three-day tournament.
The Tigers will begin SEC play at home as LSU hosts Georgia from March 8-9. Following a mid-week game against Troy on March 11, the Tigers will face Auburn in a three-game series from March 21-22. LSU will close out the home schedule in March with a doubleheader against Mississippi State on March 26.
April begins with a mid-week game against McNeese State at 6 p.m. on April 2. The Tigers will host Ole Miss in a three-game series on April 12-13. On April 16, LSU will take on Nicholls State. The Tigers close out the regular season home schedule on April 26-27 against Arkansas for Senior Day.
Last season, the Tigers averaged a school-record attendance of 824 in 21 dates at Tiger Park. For the second-straight season, LSU also recorded 30 wins at home, going 30-4 on the year. The Tigers own a spectacular 308-45 record in 11 seasons at Tiger Park.
LSU will move to its new home next season. The new stadium 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 stadium 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 Tiger Park 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.
You can join in the success of the project by following the construction phases of the stadium and making an online contribution by accessing www.MakeYourPitch.net/tigerpark, the official web site of the new Tiger softball stadium.