BATON ROUGE – The No. 18 LSU softball team embarks on 2010 opening weekend and takes on No. 19 North Carolina, No. 20 DePaul and host Texas this weekend at the Time Warner Texas Invitational.
LSU has five Texans on the roster returning to the Lone Star State. They are seniors Rachel Mitchell, Kirsten Shortridge and Cody Trahan along with sophomore Brittany Mack and freshman Lindsay Price.
“The schedule is a very aggressive start in Austin,” head coach Yvette Girouard said. “We could have padded it. We could have opened up at home with six easy wins, but we’re challenging ourselves immediately off the bat. I’m sure we’re going to get everyone’s best shot and No. 1 pitcher because we’re the highest-ranked team in the tournament.”
The Tigers return 15 letterwinners highlighted by eight position starters and four pitchers from a squad that went 34-18-1 a season ago.
Shortridge sparked the offense from the top of the batting order and racked up a .426 batting average on a team-high 80 hits last season. Her .426 average was second-highest, while the 80 hits were tied for eighth-most in program history over a single season.
Shortridge also totaled a 5-4 record with a 3.21 ERA over 15 appearances in the circle as the Keller, Texas product picked up marquee victories over Women’s College World Series participants Alabama and Arizona State en route to All-SEC First-Team, NFCA All-South Region First-Team and NFCA All-America Third-Team accolades.
Mitchell collected 24 of her team-best 38 RBIs over her last 30 games and finished the 2009 season with a .306 batting average. She also drew a team-best 32 walks and posted a .479 on-base percentage in SEC action. Both Mitchell and Shortridge were chosen to the USA Softball Player of the Year Watch List for the second consecutive season.
Ashley Langoni, Juliana Santos and Anissa Young are looking to build on their stellar freshmen campaigns. The trio combined for 21 of the team’s 31 home runs last season and produced 43 percent (92-of-214) of LSU’s RBIs. Santos notched All-SEC Freshman and NFCA All-South Region First Team honors, while Langoni secured a spot on the NCAA Tempe Regional All-Tournament Team.
Cody Trahan went 12-7 with a 2.48 ERA and fired 11 complete games to earn a NFCA All-South Region First-Team selection. She ranked in the SEC’s Top 10 in ERA (2.46), strikeouts (141) and opponent batting average (.217) as eight of her 12 victories came against league opponents.
Brittany Mack compiled an 11-4 mark with a 2.36 ERA and added nine complete games. She racked up 110 strikeouts in 103.2 innings and held opponents to a staff low .197 batting average. Her 2.36 ERA and .197 opponent batting average ranked inside the SEC Top 10 as Mack picked up victories over NCAA Regional foes Texas State (Feb. 21), Baylor (March 11) and Mississippi State (March 21).
“I think everyone was bitterly disappointed because everything fell in our lap setting us up for a super regional [at home] and we couldn’t finish it,” Girouard said. “We talked to the team earlier this week and explained that the season is broken up into about three or four segments. We need to take care of business each time we play so that we can stay home instead of getting sent across the country. This weekend is a great chance to start off really good.”
All five of LSU’s games from the Time Warner Texas Invitational will have live stats on LSUsports.com this weekend and fans also can follow in-games updates via www.twitter.com/lsu_softball.
Rachele Fico on ESPN.com
ESPN.com writer Graham Hays asked his five burning questions for the preseason in today’s column and LSU freshman pitcher Rachele Fico is featured at No. 3. Check out the full story at http://ow.ly/16sPr