BATON ROUGE – The LSU softball team carries a season’s best seven-game winning streak into a Wednesday meeting with McNeese State. First pitch is on-tap for 6 p.m. at Cowgirl Diamond in Lake Charles.
LSU (23-8) is coming off a weekend shutout and three-game road sweep of South Carolina. The Tigers also returned to the USA Softball Top 25 poll with a No. 23 national ranking and are the top receiving votes squad in the NFCA Top 25 poll released earlier Tuesday.
McNeese State (19-8) is paced by leadoff hitter Claire Terracina. She has connected for a .328 batting average, 28 hits and five triples. Reigning Southland Conference Hitter of the Week, Ashley Modzelewski, has picked up a team-leading 15 RBIs.
Megan Bond and Tiffany Denham have combined for 18 of MSU’s 19 wins in the pitching circle. Bond has posted an 11-6 mark and recorded 97 strikeouts over 96.2 innings of work, while Denham has countered with a 7-2 record and a crisp 1.33 ERA.
LSU has won four straight meetings with the Cowgirls, including a 2-0 decision back on Feb. 25 at the Tiger Invitational. Morgan Russell provided both RBIs highlighted by a sixth-inning solo home run. In the circle, Rachele Fico tossed a one-hit shutout with six strikeouts.
“We are excited to return to the Top 25,” head coach Beth Torina said. “We still have to win games, go out and compete and have to still show up with our best effort. We saw McNeese already this season at our place so we know what to expect, and we know they are a really quality ball club.”
Fico has compiled an 11-4 mark with a SEC-leading 0.65 ERA, which also ranks second in the nation. She picked up two of the three victories during the South Carolina series.
Brittany Mack, the SEC’s Co-Pitcher of the Week, has garnered a 10-4 record aided by seven straight victories dating back to March 3. She became the fifth hurler in program history to surpass 500 career strikeouts and reach the 50-win plateau.
Allison Falcon and Juliana Santos returned to both the middle of the lineup and the middle of the infield for the Tigers at South Carolina. Santos ripped off a 3-for-4 effort and a two-run home run during the series finale. She has tallied a team-leading .328 hitting clip to go along with 14 RBIs.
Ashley Langoni vaulted her way up the LSU record book in multiple categories during the South Carolina series. After blasting two home runs, she sits alone in fifth place on the program’s all-time homers list. The Pueblo, Colo., native also worked her way into the No. 9 spot on the RBIs rankings. For the season, Langoni has a collected a .312 batting average to go along with team-best five home runs and 22 RBIs.
A.J. Andrews and Jacee Blades combined for seven of LSU’s 21 runs scored last week. Blades notched multi-hit performances during the first two games against South Carolina, while Andrews smoked a three-run, second-inning triple to bust open the series finale.
“I think Santos coming back really helped Langoni to be more comfortable in the No. 3 spot of the lineup,” Torina said. “She [Santos] helps protects her [Langoni]. I think that was showed by the production of both of them this weekend. At the top of the lineup, A.J. and Jacee have been causing havoc and doing a lot of damage. You will continue to see them there, and they both are doing a really nice job.”
First pitch for Wednesday’s contest is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Cowgirl Diamond in Lake Charles. There is no radio broadcast for the mid-week contest, but live stats will be available inside the Geaux Zone on LSUsports.net.
Fans also can follow every pitch of LSU softball this season via live in-game updates on LSU softball’s social media outlets at www.Facebook.com/lsusoftball and @lsu_softball on Twitter.