BATON ROUGE — LSU softball head coach Yvette Girouard met with the media Tuesday to preview the week ahead for Tiger softball and highlight the program’s inaugural “Swing for the Cure” game to benefit the Baton Rouge Affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
Opening Statement
“Since we met last a lot of good things have happened to the LSU softball team, including the sweep over Alabama at home. I stood up here and talked about the offensive machine they were bringing in. We were able to come out with two great victories. We then won four out of five games in Mississippi. We took last weekend off and we’re now in first place in the west. Sometimes, it’s a good not to play. Everyone is beating up on each other. That’s the SEC right now. Florida still seems to be the cream of the crop. We take off to Southern Miss tomorrow night. Last weekend was a nice break for us. We were able to get some players healthy. They enjoyed being at practice yesterday and low-and-behold Rachel Mitchell turns her ankle. I don’t know if she’s going to be available tomorrow night. I’m praying that she is going to be healthy for the weekend.
“We’re going to have our inaugural “Swing for the Cure” event on Sunday. The Tigers will truly be pretty in pink. We’ll be wearing pink jerseys and pink helmets. Tennessee is going to have a pink accent to their uniforms as well. This is our first event and we want to make this our annual event. We are directly affected by breast cancer in our program. Dani Hofer‘s mom will throw out the first pitch. She is a breast cancer survivor. Katie Hamilton, who was our projected starting second baseman, has left the team to go home to Georgia to take care of her mother. Our program has been directly affected by this dreaded disease. We’ll do anything that we can to help.
“I want to thank some people for making this event possible. Jeff Boykin and Angela Miller from the Baton Rouge Affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Foundation, Jack Marucci for these awesome pink bats that fellow coaches Les Miles and Paul Mainieri have signed. Dennis Denicola is doing [two] stadium chairs that we took from the old Tiger Park and he’s refurbishing them. Our LSU Softball Diamond Backers paid for the jersey’s that the team will wear. There will be a silent auction during the game for all of these items that I’ve listed so far. Mizuno donated signed softballs by some of our Olympians. You can go to LSUSports.com/swing for more information. We’re really excited about this event.
On the Youth and How They’ve Handled the Season
“I’m very encouraged by it. I thought that from day one that it was a team that never quit. A team that never quits usually has good things in-store for it. Sometimes you shake your head at the scores and that we’re hanging on by our fingernails for the victory. They just never quit. The Mississippi State series came down to some innings with us having to come back and then hold on with them having the tying run at third base. We game away game one of the Ole Miss doubleheader. Cody Trahan had a no-hitter going into the seventh inning and we lost the game in 10 innings. It’s the nature of the beast sometimes. Considering what has happened to us losing our No. 1 pitcher in Dani Hofer, our No. 2 pitcher Cody Trahan having back surgery in December and the rainouts that have brought havoc to the flow of the season. All a coach can ever ask is that the players go out, give their best and compete hard to let the chips fall where they may.
On Dani Hofer
“At this point, we’ve seen every doctor there is. She’s basically doing what is called an epidural block. Dani is going to try and pitch when she can which at this point she’s is not. We’ve met with her family, the doctors and there are no plans of redshirting her. We’re at the point now where we want her to be healthy for the rest of her life. She has trouble writing and has carpel tunnel. It’s a sad and unfortunate situation.”
On the Damage to the new Tiger Park
“That’s another thing I’ve talked about with the team. When they come back for reunions and they’re calling each other 20 years from now, they can say lived through the hurricane, snow and a tornado. I don’t know what inline winds are but that was a tornado that came through Tiger Park. Once again, we lost a make-up of some make-up games. Half of outfield fence [was damaged] and the foul pole [in right field] was bent. We were lucky considering what happened [at soccer and at football]. We got the fence back up and everything is OK. It’s been a crazy year for weather and we’ve been affected by all of it.”
On Rachel Mitchell
“She has a habit of starting slow. This year it seemed like it was a little bit slower. She is the bat that we have relied on for RBIs so she is critical to us. She’s starting to see the ball and really swinging well. I’m hoping that she’s not out of the lineup for very long because she has her touch and her eye back. She’s very confident and we need her back as soon as possible.”