BATON ROUGE — The No. 19 LSU softball looks to snap out of a four-game skid as the Tigers conclude the home portion of the regular season schedule with a weekend series against South Carolina at the new Tiger Park.
Both Saturday’s doubleheader and Sunday’s single-game are slated to get underway at 1 p.m. as LSU (27-14-1, 10-9-1 SEC) has won eight of the last 10 meetings and holds an overall 25-12 series edge against South Carolina (20-19, 5-16 SEC).
“We’ve worked hard at practice on hitting the ball where it’s pitched to try and get out of this offensive funk that we’ve been in lately,” head coach Yvette Girouard said. “We have to fight together to be successful this weekend because we know South Carolina has their back against the wall. They’re a very dangerous team after beating Alabama two out of three.”
The Tigers will honor senior pitcher Dani Hofer prior to Sunday’s game. She is scheduled to start in the circle and throw one pitch making her first appearance of the 2009 season.
Hofer compiled an impressive 16-5 mark en route to SEC All-Freshman honors in 2006 before breaking out with a 24-3 record as a sophomore. The .883 winning percentage is a program record as she racked up First-Team All-SEC, SEC Tournament MVP, Second-Team NFCA All-Region and LSWA Pitcher of the Year in 2007.
Hofer ranks in the Top 5 of nine pitching categories, including wins (59), strikeouts (623), complete games (54), shutouts (20) and opponent batting average (.179).
“Dani had two fabulous seasons as a Tiger. Unfortunately, her career ended early due to an injury,” Girouard said. “I’ve always said that if this is the worst thing that happens to Dani then she will have an excellent life. She has been pleasant to coach, and our program will miss her a lot.”
Kirsten Shortridge, Jazz Jackson, Rachel Mitchell and Ashley Applegate, four of top five hitters in the LSU lineup, are hitting over .315 this season.
Shortridge has hit safely in 12 of her last 15 games en route to a team-best 61 hits on a .396 average. She also has stolen 20 bases and recorded multiple steals for the fourth time this season at McNeese State.
Jackson has tallied a hit in 17 of 20 SEC games and matched a career-best 13-game hitting streak last weekend against No. 1 Florida, while Mitchell boasts a team-best 30 RBIs and has upped her average 37 points over her last 11 games. Applegate has tallied six of her 10 multi-hit efforts in league games.
Freshmen Ashley Langoni, Juliana Santos and Anissa Young have accounted for 39.4 percent (65-of-165) of LSU’s RBIs this season. The trio will look to break out of a collective 1-for-28 slump over the last four games.
In the circle, Cody Trahan and Brittany Mack enter the weekend sharing the staff lead with 109 strikeouts on the season. Mack limited No. 1 Florida to one run on five hits over nine innings of work during the first two games of the series.
All three games of the Carolina series will be broadcasted live on The X 104.5/104.9 FM. Patrick Wright and Kent Lowe will call the action live from new Tiger Park. Live stats also will be available on LSUSports.net.