BATON ROUGE — The No. 20 LSU softball team opens a stretch of nine of its next 11 games on the road with a weekend series at No. 8 Georgia.
LSU (15-5, 2-1 SEC) returns to the road for the first time since opening weekend after playing its last 15 games at the new Tiger Park. The Tigers were rained out at Southeastern Louisiana (Feb. 18) and the NFCA Leadoff Classic (Feb. 27-March 1).
LSU leads the all-time series 26-12, including a sweep of the Bulldogs last season.
“Every place in the SEC is a tough place to play,” head coach Yvette Girouard said. “Our freshmen will have their eyes opened if they thought the Kentucky series was rough. Georgia will be hot [after losing a doubleheader Wednesday at No. 1 Florida] and ready to go.”
LSU has its next eight games scheduled against teams that appeared in the NCAA Regionals [Mississippi State], the NCAA Super Regionals [Georgia] and the Women’s College World Series [Alabama].
The Tigers have won nine of its last 10 games outscoring its opponents, 63-19. LSU’s offense has posted a .326 team batting average headlined by Kirsten Shortridge, Rachel Mitchell and Ashley Applegate. The trio is each hitting over .390 during the stretch.
In the circle, Cody Trahan has won her last five starts and notched 31 strikeouts over her last 30.2 innings of work. She has recorded a 1.14 ERA and been touched up for only five earned runs during that stretch.
Brittany Mack bounced back after a rough outing in her SEC debut against Kentucky. She picked up a complete game victory and allowed just three hits against Baylor.
UPDATED NOTE: Due to conflicts with men’s basketball and baseball, only game 1 of Saturday’s doubleheader will be broadcast live on The X 104.5 and 104.9 in the Baton Rouge area starting at for noon CT. Sunday’s game will be available if the men’s basketball team does not play in the SEC Championship game.
Patrick Wright, the voice of Tiger softball, will call the play-by-play action with Matt Dunaway serving as a guest analyst. LSUSports.net also will provide live stats.