BATON ROUGE – The No. 25 LSU softball team steps out of SEC action for a Wednesday road tilt against Southern Miss. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. at the USM Softball Complex.
The Tigers (15-10) are looking to end a five-game losing streak after facing No. 1 Georgia and No. 2 Florida last week, while the Golden Eagles (8-13) have dropped eight straight dating back to Feb. 26.
LSU has won 19 of the previous 23 meetings with Southern Miss highlighted by 17 consecutive wins under head coach Yvette Girouard dating back to the 2001 season.
“We look forward to putting on the uniform again,” Girouard said. “It’s an opportunity for our team to get back on the field, play better and feel good about ourselves. Hopefully, we can get back to basics and play Tiger softball.”
From the top of the lineup, Simone Heyward has posted a team-best .364 batting average. She has extended her on-base streak to 20 straight games to open her career and registered hits during six of her last eight outings.
Heyward is joined by Tiffany Shaw and Tammy Wray with a team-high 20 hits each. Shaw has started in 20 consecutive games and notched a hit in 13 of those contests to check in with a .303 hitting clip.
LSU’s junior class of Ashley Langoni, Heidi Pizer, Juliana Santos and Anissa Young has combined for nine of the team’s 14 home runs on the season. Young has belted six dingers to go along with a team-best 21 RBIs.
Lauren Houston is swinging a hot bat and has posted four multi-hit efforts in her last eight games where she has recorded a plate appearance.
The Tiger pitching staff will look to bounce back from allowing 39 runs over the last five games. Rachele Fico, Brittany Mack and Meghan Patterson have each garnered five wins in the circle. Fico and Patterson have tallied 74 and 73 Ks to rank eighth and ninth in the SEC, respectively.
Fans can follow Wednesday’s contest via live stats on www.LSUsports.net/livestats along with in-game updates via the program’s social media pages at www.Facebook.com/lsusoftball and www.Twitter.com/LSU_Softball.