BATON ROUGE — LSU will once again have to postpone the final game in Tiger Park for one more weekend as the overall No. 9 national seeded Tigers begin NCAA Regional competition this weekend at home, facing Mississippi Valley State on Friday at 7 p.m. as part of the three-day double-elimination tournament.
All of LSU’s NCAA Regional games will be broadcast on the LSU Sports Radio Network in Baton Rouge on The X – 104.5/104.9 FM. The broadcasts can also be heard in the GeauxZone on LSUsports.net. Fans can purchase tickets online at the official web site of LSU Athletics, LSUsports.net, or at the Tiger Park ticket trailer. Tournament books are available for $40 each for adults and $25 each for youth between the ages of 2 and 12 and students. All children under two get into Tiger Park for free. In addition, single-game tickets will be available on game days at a cost of $6 for adults and $4 for youth.
“Obviously we are very happy to be in Baton Rouge,” said LSU head coach Yvette Girouard. “I’m really pleased for our seven seniors that they can play a Regional tournament here. It looks like the bad weather is out of here and we should have some lower humidity temperatures. It should be a fabulous weekend at the Park.”
The Tigers (42-16) fell to No. 3 national seed Alabama in the Southeastern Conference Tournament semifinals last weekend at Tiger Park after knocking off NCAA College Station Regional participant Auburn. The No. 9 national seed is the highest for LSU since the NCAA Tournament went to the Super Regional format in 2005.
Mississippi Valley State (28-26) earned the at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament from the Southwestern Athletic Conference after winning the league tournament. The Devilettes won the SWAC Eastern Division, tied with Southern University for the overall championship, before defeating the Lady Jaguars in the tournament championship game, 6-3. Mississippi Valley is making its fifth-straight NCAA Tournament appearances.
If the Tigers advance past the Devilettes, LSU will face the winner of the Louisiana-Lafayette/East Carolina game at 1 p.m. on Saturday. A win in that game would put the Tigers directly into the regional championship game on Sunday at 1 p.m. If LSU loses to the Devilettes, the Tigers would have to advance through the losers bracket. LSU would face the ULL-ECU loser on Saturday at 4 p.m. and would then have to defeat the loser of the 1 p.m. game at 7 p.m.
“This is a good draw for us, but one where we absolutely have to come ready to play,” said Girouard.
If LSU wins the Baton Rouge Regional, it will be paired against the winner of the Houston Regional and would likely travel to Houston, to face eighth-seeded Houston if the Cougars advance out of their regional. The winner of that Super Regional would advance to the Women’s College World Series.
Sophomore Rachel Mitchell leads LSU with a .379 average, including a team-best 49 RBIs and 44 runs scored, while tying for the team lead with 10 home runs and three triples. In addition, she is tied for the team high with 14 doubles and has also stolen 11 bases, fourth most on the team.
Senior Quinlan Duhon is second on the team with a .335 average, followed by Shannon Stein at .331. Duhon is tied with Mitchell and Killian Roessner for the team lead in home runs, while sitting four off the lead with 11 doubles. Stein is third on the team with 12 doubles and ranks second on the team with 34 runs scored.
Dee Dee Henderson leads the Tigers with a career-high 33 stolen bases, just the second player in LSU softball history to record 30 steals in a single season. For her career, Henderson ranks second in career stolen bases in school history and sixth in SEC history. Jazz Jackson has posted a career-best 20 stolen bases as the Tigers have stolen 96 bases on the year. LSU has only hit the century mark for stolen bases three times, with the most recent coming in 2001.
As a team, the Tigers are hitting .286 for the season. LSU has recorded 74 doubles with nine triples and 53 home runs. The Tigers are only seven home runs away from tying the LSU single-season record of 60 set in 2004. The Tigers are also averaging just over five runs a game, having scored 296 runs this season.
Despite being sidelined with a wrist injury that has kept her out of the circle since April 19 against Tennessee, Dani Hofer leads LSU in the circle with an 18-7 record and a 1.90 earned run average. The junior recorded 210 strikeouts in 29 appearances to average over 10 strikeouts per seven innings before getting hurt and being forced to sit out the last seven games. Hofer’s status remains day-to-day, as it has been for the last several weeks.
Sophomore Cody Trahan has stepped in with the loss of Hofer and performance outstandingly. The hurler has lost only one game since becoming LSU’s No. 1 pitcher, with a 7-1 record, including a win over nationally ranked Tennessee and all three wins in the Tigers’ sweep of Arkansas. For the season, she is 18-5 with a 1.98 earned run average. She boasts 146 strikeouts, while one-hitting nationally ranked Georgia in the first SEC series of the season.
Freshman Casey Faile and senior Tiffany Garcia have stepped in to share time at the No. 2 position. Faile is 3-1 on the season with a 2.18 earned run average, having one-hit UL-Monroe on the road. Garcia is 3-3 with a 3.89 earned run average for the season, posting a one-hit shutout of Southeastern Louisiana on the road.
Having qualified for 10 NCAA Tournaments in 12 seasons, LSU is 31-18 (.633) all-time in the tournament, the fifth best winning percentage of any school in the NCAA Tournament in the nation. In 2001, the Tigers advanced to their first Women’s College World Series, where LSU went 2-2. Three years later, the Tigers again advanced to the WCWS, this time coming seven outs away from the national championship game while going 3-2.
The Tigers were one of eight SEC schools that advanced to the NCAA Regional round, leading all conference for the most teams represented in the NCAA Tournament, followed by the Pac-10 with seven. Regular-season and SEC Tournament champion Florida earned the top overall national seed, while Alabama earned the No. 3 national seed. In addition, Tennessee was the No. 13 national seed and Georgia earned a No. 15 national seed. Mississippi State, Auburn and Arkansas also earned berths in the tournament.
NCAA Softball Baton Rouge Regional Schedule
Baton Rouge, La.
Tiger Park
Friday, May 16
Game 1 4 p.m. Louisiana-Lafayette vs. East Carolina
Game 2 7 p.m. LSU vs. Mississippi Valley State
Saturday, May 17
Game 3 1 p.m. Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2
Game 4 4 p.m. Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2
Game 5 7 p.m. Loser Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4
Sunday, May 18
Game 6 1 p.m. Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 5
Game 7 4 p.m. same as Game 6 if necessary
All times Central and subject to change