BATON ROUGE, La. – LSU softball returns to the field this Friday and Saturday, stepping out of conference play for a marquee matchup against the Oklahoma Sooners this weekend at Tiger Park in Baton Rouge.
In a battle of top 10 teams, fans will be able to watch game one of the series between the top-ranked Tigers and the No. 6 Sooners Friday evening at 6 p.m. nationally on ESPNU with Holly Rowe and Jessica Mendoza. Saturday’s game will also be at 6 p.m. and can be viewed online on SEC Network+ through WatchESPN. Fans unable to watch can listen to both on the radio home of LSU softball on ESPN 104.5/9 locally in Baton Rouge and anywhere in the Geaux Zone.
Fans are asked to “Geaux Green” for Friday’s game, as it will also be Girl Scouts’ Night at the park, with the first 500 fans through the gates receiving a green LSU headband upon entry. Saturday will be special for the team and the program as we welcome back a host of former Tiger greats for the annual Alumnae Game, as the first 1,000 through the gates will receive an LSU softball pennant.
For the second consecutive weekend, LSU will be locked into a heated battle with another softball power in Oklahoma, as this is just the third time the Sooners will be playing in Baton Rouge even though the two sides have met 13 times already up to this point. This time around the tables are turned as the Tigers enter the series as the hunted after becoming the No. 1 team in the country earlier this week and looking to defend its home turf against a team also looking to earn some early-season acclaim and riding a 14-game winning streak.
“We knew going in that this week was going to be a challenge with a midweek game and two games this weekend against a really good team in Oklahoma at home, but I think our players come to LSU for weeks like this and to play the teams that we do,” head coach Beth Torina said. “We know we have a target on our backs, but we choose not to focus on that and instead worry about playing our game the way we know we’re capable of against another quality opponent.”
The Tigers improved to 28-1 on the season after earning a solid 6-1 victory over the Nicholls State University Colonels Tuesday in Baton Rouge. Two days removed from its series win over Florida on the road, the team returned home and fought through some early game struggles to score six unanswered runs to pull ahead and notch its home record to 21-0.
With so many home games for LSU, now more than halfway through the season, the squad has been able to make Tiger Park a difficult place to play in all facets for the opposition when they step foot on the field. The team is hitting .377 at home this year, earning on average nearly 10 hits per game and nearly eight runs per outing. To the latter, opponents are hitting less than .200, averaging nearly four hits per game and 1.10 runs per game.
The Colonels were the latest to learn this earlier this week, being held to just four hits in the contest and getting only two runners past second base for the length of the contest, while LSU showed its penchant for putting up crooked numbers in multiple innings late in games as well.
After sweeping every major weekly softball award this past week, junior Bianka Bell showed no signs of slowing down on Tuesday, earning her 16th multiple hit game and 13th multi-RBI outing with a 4-for-4 showing with four RBIs in the win. Both are team high’s as she currently on a 10-game hitting streak, one shy of tying her career long, upping her batting average to a scorching .565.
The group produced five extra-base hits against Nicholls, the sixth time doing so this season against an opponent, as all were doubles which was a season high for LSU. Bailey Landry extended her hitting streak to a whopping 21 games and scored three times, Kellsi Kloss extended her streak to seven which is a new career long, while Emily Griggs hit her second of the year and Kailey McCasland earned her first.
Earning the start in the circle for the Tigers in the game was Baylee Corbello, who after only pitching three innings against Florida, earned the complete-gamer by striking out six and allowing four hits and one run to improve to 7-0 on the year. LSU will look to get its pitching staff back on track as a whole this weekend, as the team’s ERA only moved up to 1.35 after the barrage of runs last weekend.
By that same token, Oklahoma is coming in with easily the best offense the Tigers have seen this year, including the Gators’. The Sooners are batting .403 as a squad with 57 home runs. OU has Lauren Chamberlain who is chasing the all-time NCAA home run record, while Shelby Pendley hit seven home runs last weekend to share one national player of the week honor with Bell.
OU’s pitching has been just as stellar with a 1.99 ERA, led by Paige Parker’s 10-2 record among three perfect games this season alone. LSU is familiar with Kelsey Stevens who threw in both games last season in Norman, as she is 7-0.
There will be a bit of history also on the field Friday night that has little to do with the actual game itself, as head coach Patty Gasso, who just earned her 1,000th win at Oklahoma last week, will be the eighth coach and seventh from the opposing side to play at the new Tiger Park with at least 1,000 career victories in a tenure.
“We have so much respect for Oklahoma and what they’ve done as a program for the game of softball,” Torina said. “Patty is one of the best coaches in the game currently, and the fans that come out to Tiger Park this weekend will no doubt see two competitive games with two very quality clubs.”
For all of the latest news and information on Tiger softball, visit www.lsusports.net/softball. Fans can also follow the program on its social media outlets at www.Facebook.com/lsusoftball along with @lsusoftball and @BethTorina on Twitter and @lsusb on Instagram.