BATON ROUGE – The LSU softball team wraps up a five-game road swing and travels to Nicholls State for a Wednesday tilt at 6 p.m. in the Colonel Softball Complex. It marks the Tigers first mid-week road contest of the 2012 season.
LSU (10-7, 0-0 SEC) will look to bounce back from a 1-3 weekend against then No. 8 Oklahoma and then No. 23 Oklahoma State, a pair of 2011 Women’s College World Series teams.
LSU has won 22 of its previous 23 meetings with the Colonels (4-15, 0-0 Southland), including all eight contests in Thibodaux. Ashley Ray headlines Nicholls with a .426 batting average, four home runs and 15 RBIs, while Katie Moulder has secured three of the four wins in the circle.
“We have definitely seen a lot of things that we need to work on to get better,” head coach Beth Torina said. “Last weekend was very challenging, and we had to face [Oklahoma All-American pitcher] Keilani Ricketts twice. She was very talented and held up all the awards she has earned. I think we learned a lot from the weekend.”
LSU’s offense is paced by Ashley Langoni and Juliana Santos. Both have notched team-highs with 12 hits and scored nine runs. Last time out, Langoni matched a career-best three hits at Oklahoma State.
Lauren Houston has reached base in six of her eight appearances to collect a .308 batting average along with an impressive .524 on-base clip.
“Before Sunday’s game, I put a little pressure on Langoni to come through for us,” Torina said. “She really came through, and I hope that continues into this week and the start of SEC play coming up.”
Rachele Fico and Brittany Mack have combined for nine of LSU’s 10 wins in the pitching circle. Fico’s ERA is down to microscopic 0.38 ratio and has surrendered just three earned runs during her 54.2 innings of work. Mack has produced at least six strikeouts in her each last four starts dating back to Feb. 21.
Meghan Patterson has chipped in 17 Ks over her 13.1 frames and won her only start of the season.
“Overall, the pitching staff has been pretty solid,” Torina said. “They have made some big pitches in some key moments, which I would like to see the offense do the same thing and get the timely hit. With runners in scoring position, I think out pitchers have done a really nice job of making big pitches and getting key outs right there. The one thing we could work on is getting ahead in counts a little bit better. I feel like we are starting out behind, more walks than I would like.”
Follow every pitch of LSU softball this season via live stats on www.LSUsports.net/livestats. Fans also can receive live in-game updates on LSU softball’s social media outlets at www.Facebook.com/lsusoftball and @lsu_softball on Twitter.