BATON ROUGE — After finishing the Southeastern Conference regular season in third place, the 15th-ranked LSU softball team will open SEC Tournament play as the third seed and take on sixth-seeded Auburn on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at home at Tiger Park.
Fans can purchase all tickets online at LSUsports.net, at the ticket office or by calling 578-2184 or (800) 960-8587. 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. In addition, single-game tickets are available at a cost of $5 for adults and $3 for youth.
All of the Tigers’ postseason games will be broadcast on the LSU Sports Radio Network in Baton Rouge on The X – 104.5/104.9 FM and on the internet in the GeauxZone at LSUsports.net. In addition, live stats for all SEC Tournament games and streaming video for the first two days action can be found on LSUsports.net. The championship game on Saturday will be televised on Fox Sports in Baton Rouge on cable channel 38.
“We have a chance to do something no other team has been able to do,” said LSU head coach Yvette Girouard. “Since we went to home sites, no host team has won the tournament or even advanced to the championship game. These are potentially the last games in Tiger Park and it would be nice to send our seven seniors and the stadium out on a winning note.”
In the third season of the single elimination format, the top eight teams advance to the tournament and will pay on Thursday. The semi-finals are on Friday, with the championship game on Saturday at noon. If LSU advances past Auburn, the Tigers will face the winner of the Alabama/Mississippi State game on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
The Tigers (41-15, 17-11 SEC) enter the tournament as the third seed after finishing second in the SEC Western Division and third overall. Auburn comes into the tournament with a record of 37-19 overall and 13-14 in conference play. AU finished tied for sixth in the league standings with Mississippi State, but earned the higher seed based on having won the season series with the Bulldogs.
During the season, LSU swept the season series against Auburn in Baton Rouge. The purple and gold handily won games one and three by scores of 8-1 and10-0 in six innings. LSU came from behind to defeat AU in game two, 5-3, in 10 innings on a walk-off two-run home run by Killian Roessner. The Tigers now own a 35-11 record all-time against Auburn and a 5-3 record against AU in SEC Tournament play.
The Tigers have now participated in all 11 previous conference tournaments in the league’s history. LSU owns a 33-11 overall record in SEC Tournament play, and have won the tournament a conference-record five times ? 1999, 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2007. The Tigers have advanced through the tournament into the championship game in eight of the last 10 seasons, including last year when LSU defeated Florida, 1-0, in extra innings.
“Being in eight of the last nine championship games is just an amazing feat and speaks to the level of this program for a long time,” said Girouard. “This conference has been among the tops in the nation and to get to the championship game year in and year out is just a testament to the strength of LSU.”
The purple and gold are one of only four teams with a winning record in the tournament. The Tigers’ winning percentage is almost .200 better than the next best team in the league. No other team has won the SEC Tournament championship more than three times and no other team has appeared in the championship game more than three times, while LSU has won it five times and made eight appearances in the title game.