BATON ROUGE — The No. 21 LSU softball team faces its toughest challenge of the season as No. 2 Alabama visits the new Tiger Park Wednesday for a mid-week doubleheader.
The Tigers (15-6, 2-2 SEC) and Crimson Tide (23-3, 3-0 SEC) have combined to win all 13 SEC Western Division crowns since 1997.
“It has been a battle since day one between the Tigers and Tide,” head coach Yvette Girouard said. “We have tremendous respect for their coaches and program. We’re looking for a fabulous crowd because this is as good as college softball gets.”
Jazz Jackson headlines LSU with a .533 batting average, while Ashley Langoni has driven in six of her team leading 13 RBIs during conference play.
“The offense is starting to see the ball better,” Girouard said. “We’re going to be challenge by two phenomenal pitchers with different strengths. There?s no doubt that the challenge is much bigger but the reward is much greater if the outcome is a good one.”
In the circle, Cody Trahan and Brittany Mack sport identical 5-1 records. Trahan is looking to bounce back from a rough outing at No. 8 Georgia. Mack notched a complete game victory over Baylor in her last outing.
First pitch is scheduled for 5 p.m. and both games of the doubleheader against the Crimson Tide will be broadcasted live on The X 104.5 and 104.9 in the Baton Rouge area. Patrick Wright, the voice of Tiger softball, will call the play-by-play action. Live video is available in the Geaux Zone and LSUSports.net will provide live stats.
All fans in attendance will have a chance to win a $50 gift certificate to LSUShop.net during a trivia contest. Students also can register to win a separate $50 gift certificate to LSUShop.net as part of student point night.
Walk-On’s Press Conference
March 17, 2009
SOFTBALL COACH YVETTE GIROUARD QUOTES
Opening Statement
“We are in the middle of March Madness, and it has certainly hit our softball team ? it’s March Insanity ? after the weekend in Georgia where we played one game in freezing cold, rainy weather with probably 30 people huddled up in the stands because it was so cold and miserable. That is the only game we got in. The second game we had the bases loaded in the fourth inning with one out, and we didn’t get to complete it and we never saw the field on Sunday. It’s been a pretty frustrating start already to the SEC competition for us and the start of the year too with injuries and everything else. We have a young team, and they don’t understand a lot of things. We have tried to explain it to them, but you have to go forward.
“It looks like we will have fantastic weather tomorrow night for a team that is either ranked one or two in every poll in the country. Alabama and Florida were picked to win the divisions, and right now they are sitting at the top of the standings in every poll in the country. It is a fabulous team (Alabama) that is coming in. They have it all. They have pitching. They have speed. They can hit it out of the park. We have a long history together. Their head coach (Patrick Murphy) and I coached together for five years. He was my assistant at ULL. His associate head coach (Alyson Habetz) played for me for four years, so we have a unique, respectful friendship.
“It is always a war on the field between the Tide and the Tigers, and we are looking for a fabulous crowd tomorrow night because this is about as good a team as you will see in college softball in as great an atmosphere as hopefully we can produce out there. Then we head to Mississippi for the weekend and catch the Mississippi schools with a weekend doubleheader against Mississippi State and a midweek series with Ole Miss. We will stay there and play both series and then come home Tuesday night.”
On if it is weird playing Alabama in only a two-game series instead of three …
“Yes, this is unique because the conference went to doubleheaders midweek either last year or the year before, and every two years it switches and both Alabama and ourselves weren’t happy that it is a midweek series because for both of our programs usually the stands are full for that weekend series. It is a loss of some crowds maybe because it is a midweek series, but we will have Alabama midweek next year and then we will change partners again. LSU and Alabama are the only West teams who have won the division. It has always been the Tigers or the Tide. No other program has been able to win it, so it is a short, storied history in the fact that the conference is only 12 years old.”
On Alabama’s strong pitching …
“(Alabama pitcher) Kelsi Dunne came for a visit over here, and we thought we had a very good shot at her. She is a very good pitcher. She’s a sophomore, and as a freshman she brought them to the World Series along with (pitcher) Charlotte Morgan. Charlotte is a lefty. She also hits in their lineup for them. Kelsi was a first-team All-SEC pitcher last year. She at times can be a dominating pitcher. She is not putting up the K’s. She will average eight or nine (strikeouts) a game. She doesn’t get the 15, and hopefully she doesn’t. She is a very good pitcher with a very good defense behind her and an unbelievably explosive offensive machine that Alabama has right now.”
On the status of Kirsten Shortridge …
“Hopefully she has a much better weekend. In the Baylor game she was hit on the kneecap with the second pitch of the game, and it really affected her throughout the game against Baylor and on the weekend. Hopefully she is a little bit better for us tomorrow night.”
On the strength of the SEC as a conference in softball …
“We all say this as coaches that the SEC is just a phenomenal league. For softball, it has been incredible because it is only 12 years old, and we already have these teams in the top 10 every year now. One and two are Florida and Alabama. We are disappointed in the Georgia weekend because we really felt like we were very evenly matched against Georgia and they had put up some phenomenal wins already. We were encouraged by that aspect.”
On the series against Georgia …
“We ended the first game with the bases loaded, and we didn’t pitch particularly well and there were a lot of things we could have done better. However, I don’t think Georgia pitched particularly well either. When its 40 degrees and raining and you can’t feel your fingers, it’s not easy to compete in the circle.”