BATON ROUGE – The No. 19 LSU softball team plays host to Louisiana-Monroe Wednesday to open its second season at Tiger Park. First pitch is on-tap for 6 p.m. and the contest marks the first of 18-straight for the Tigers at home.
“We’re so happy to open our second season at Tiger Park,” head coach Yvette Girouard said. “We love our facility and we’re hoping to have an excellent turnout. We made some adjustments to work on our weaknesses for both our hitters and pitchers today at practice,” Girouard said. “Our hitters worked on tracking the ball better, while the pitchers worked more on getting the ball down in the zone.”
LSU (2-3) notched a runner-up finish at the Time Warner Texas Invitational that featured a quartet of 2009 NCAA Tournament teams last weekend. The Tigers picked up victories over then No. 19 North Carolina and No. 21 DePaul. All three of LSU’s setbacks came by one run.
Kirsten Shortridge fueled the offense with a five-game hitting streak and racked up seven hits on a .368 batting average. The Keller, Texas product also stole three bases and scored two runs from the top of the lineup.
Ashley Langoni, Rachel Mitchell, Jessica Mouse and Anissa Young each recorded multiple RBIs for the Tigers. Both Langoni and Young started their sophomore campaigns with home runs on opening weekend.
LSU’s pitching staff compiled an impressive 1.24 staff ERA for the weekend. Shortridge tossed her first seven-inning complete game as she surrendered only three hits and recorded six strikeouts against DePaul.
Brittany Mack and Rachele Fico were the tough-luck losers in a pair of 2-1 losses to Texas. Mack headlined the staff with a 0.88 ERA and allowed only six hits in her eight innings of work. Fico hurled 2.2 innings of two-hit relief against North Carolina to earn her first win as a collegiate. The two-time NFCA High School All-American tallied 14 strikeouts over her 14.2 frames of work.
“The bottom line is we have to execute better in RBI situations which ended up costing a couple of games last weekend,” Girouard said. “I thought we played tremendous defense and pitched well enough to win those games. We have to get the bats rolling and capitalize with runners in scoring position. The goal for tomorrow night is to be more focused, hit better pitchers and be aggressive.”
Wednesday’s game will be broadcasted live on ESPN Radio 104.5 and 104.9 FM in the Baton Rouge area with Patrick Wright and Kent Lowe set to call all of the action. Live video and stats also are available in the Geaux Zone on LSUSports.net and live in-game updates via www.twitter.com/lsu_softball.
Tickets are on-sale now and can be purchased online on LSUSports.net, the official Web site of LSU Athletics. Tickets also can be purchased in person at the ticket office on the first floor of the Athletics Administration Building or by calling (225) 578-2184 or (800) 960-8587.
The Tiger Park Ticket Trailer opens at 4:30 p.m. and Wednesday’s game also marks the first of five Weekday Worker games. Fans who purchase tickets at the gate while presenting their business card will receive a $3 ticket and entrance into a drawing to win a prize pack.