BATON ROUGE – The No. 18 LSU softball team wraps up its seven-game homestand to start the 2011 season with a Wednesday tilt against Southeastern Louisiana. First pitch against the Lady Lions is set for 6 p.m. at Tiger Park.
The Tigers (6-0) fired off six impressive victories and outscored their opponents by a healthy 41-8 margin last weekend at the Wilson/DeMarini Tiger Classic.
LSU notched a .368 team batting average and racked up 22 stolen bases. A quartet of juniors – Ashley Langoni, Heidi Pizer, Juliana Santos and Anissa Young – picked up 23 of the team’s 38 RBIs.
The Tigers also dented the scoreboard during the first inning in four of their six games. Simone Heyward, the Wilson/DeMarini Tiger Classic Tournament MVP, raced her way to a .412 hitting clip and crossed the plate 11 times.
“Our offense is determined to score first, and I’m very proud that the players are doing all of the little things, much less the big things to get us victories,” head coach Yvette Girouard said. “We’re hitting behind runners and scoring runners in RBI situations. That’s what makes you a very good team.”
Rachele Fico, Brittany Mack and Meghan Patterson each garnered two wins apiece and combined for 59 strikeouts against six walks during their 39 innings of work. For her efforts, Patterson was named the LSWA Pitcher of the Week after hurling consecutive complete games with double-digit Ks against Bowling Green and Louisiana Tech, respectively.
“We got to see Meghan Patterson perform magnificently under some stress in the circle,” Girouard said. “I was very happy that Brittany Mack finished everything that she started and we know that Rachele Fico has the stamina to be the one to log the most innings if needed.”
Southeastern Louisiana (3-2) is coming off a second-place finish at the season-opening Lion Classic over the weekend in Hammond. The Lady Lions picked up wins over defending Ohio Valley Conference champion Tennessee-Martin, St. Louis and Southern, while falling to Akron and UMKC.
Jessie Browne, Meghan Gomez and Tori Sheppard share the team lead with four RBIs apiece, while Browne tallied two of the three wins in the circle for the Lady Lions.
“We know that we’re always marked on the calendar of our in-state school opponents,” Girouard said. “It’s another opportunity to play in front of our home crowd before taking off on the road, and we’re hoping to play as well as we did last weekend.”
Live stats for Wednesday’s game will be available on LSUsports.net and fans can follow in-games updates via the program’s social media pages at www.Facebook.com/lsusoftball and Twitter.com/LSU_Softball.
The Tiger Park Ticket Booth will open Wednesday at 5 p.m. and fans can purchase tickets on-site starting at $5 for adult general admission. It also marks the first of five Weekday Worker games where fans presenting their business card will receive a $3 ticket and entrance into a drawing to win a prize pack.
Additional ticket information for LSU’s home series with SEC heavyweights Alabama, Florida, Kentucky and Tennessee is available at www.LSUtix.net.