BATON ROUGE — The No. 19 LSU softball team looks to continue its winning ways and embarks into SEC action with a weekend series against Kentucky at the new Tiger Park.
LSU (12-4, 0-0 SEC) has won 27 of 28 all-time meetings with the Wildcats (9-4, 0-0 SEC), including eight consecutive games dating back to the 2005 season.
Saturday’s doubleheader begins at 1 p.m. and fans wearing gold receive free admission. LSU’s softball alumni also will be honored in between games as the program celebrates its first alumni weekend.
All-Americans Stephanie Hastings, Kristin Schmidt, Leslie Klein and Emily Turner are among the group of players scheduled to attend.
First pitch on Sunday has been moved up to Noon to accommodate Kentucky’s (9-4, 0-0 SEC) travel plans. Due to the time change, KLSU 91.1 FM will carry the series finale on tape delay.
“We’re so excited to show off our new ballpark to the alumni and start conference play this weekend,” head coach Yvette Girouard said. “Kentucky is much improved under Rachel Lawson and played well during nonconference. Playing in the best conference in the nation is what our players signed on to do at LSU and we’ll have to play well this weekend to be successful.”
LSU has won six consecutive games dating back to the final game of the Easton Tiger Classic on Feb. 15. The Tigers are hitting a scorching .352 as a team and outscoring the opposition 41-6 over the streak.
Kirsten Shortridge has hit safely in 14 of 16 games this season, including a .524 average with nine RBIs over her last six games. She has produced four consecutive multi-hit games and turned in a 3-for-3 performance with a pair of stolen bases and two RBIs against Nicholls last time out.
Rachel Mitchell and Jessica Mouse also have swung hot bats during the winning streak going 5-for-14 driving home a combined five RBIs.
Not to be outdone during the streak, LSU’s pitching staff has notched an impressive 0.95 ERA limiting opposing hitters to a .155 batting average.
Cody Trahan and Brittany Mack have combined for five of the squad’s six wins. The duo has been touched up for only 10 hits and racked up 44 of the staff’s 52 strikeouts in 30 innings during the streak.
“The SEC is one of the toughest conferences in college softball with a lot of talented hitters,” Trahan said. “We have to ignore the games we’ve played and focus on how tough this next part of the season is going to be.”
Live stats for all three games of the series will be available on LSUSports.net.