BATON ROUGE, La. – The LSU softball team returns home on Tuesday evening, hosting the ULM Warhawks at 6 p.m. at Tiger Park in Baton Rouge.
The Tigers begin another four-game stretch of home contests with another in-state foe on Tuesday, as fans who attend the game will receive an LSU softball Frisbee, while also getting their Louisiana Purchase cards stamped, leaving just one more open slot remaining until playing Southeastern Louisiana in late April. Fans with fully stamped cards will receive an LSU duffel bag.
Tuesday’s game will be streamed live online on SEC Network+ through WatchESPN for desktops, mobile devices, tablets and streaming devices. ESPN 104.5/9 will have fans covered beginning at 5:45 p.m. as Patrick Wright and Matt Dunaway will have the radio call, which will also be featured in the Geaux Zone for subscribers.
LSU enters the week 32-3 on the season and 6-3 in Southeastern Conference play, coming off of weekend that saw the squad drop its first series of the year to the Kentucky Wildcats in Lexington. After struggling through the first two games, the Tigers regrouped to take the finale in the hopes of taking some of that momentum into another week of action with ULM on Tuesday before hosting Ole Miss this weekend.
The Tigers return to the friendly confines of Tiger Park this week, looking to bring back the staggering offensive numbers the group produced in their record start, looking to shake the futility of the weekend that saw them hit .244 and only score five runs. Although LSU faced one of the top pitchers in the conference in Kelsey Nunley, they still managed to outhit the Wildcats over the course of the weekend, leaving some opportunities on the bases in the form of stranding 21 total runners on base in three days.
While normally having the bulk of the offensive production come from the top of the order in previous outings, the bottom half of the lineup carried a bit of the load in the finale, seeing players like Emily Griggs and Dylan Supak, among others, have a hand in keeping opposing teams off balance with the strength of the Tiger offensive attack.
Griggs earned her first three-hit game as a Tiger on Sunday, driving in one and connecting for the first triple of her career against the Wildcats, while Supak started the LSU scoring in the fourth inning of that contest with an RBI single as she’s earned hits in back-to-back starts for the first time this season. Sandra Simmons had a hit and a sacrifice, giving her six for the year which leads the team.
Even in dropping the series, the Tigers were still strong in the circle, beginning and ending the week of competition with shutouts, as Baylee Corbello tossed her fourth of the season and remained unbeaten at 8-0 by giving up just three hits while striking out eight. In eight starts this year, she has held an opponent to two runs or fewer, including tossing her first no-hitter earlier this month.
In all, LSU pitching only allowed eight runs, as only five were earned due to errors in contests, finishing with an ERA of 1.84 as the trio of Corbello, Carley Hoover and Allie Walljasper held UK to a .230 hitting percentage and still hold the lowest ERA in the entire SEC.
Every team on the schedule except for Southeastern Louisiana that LSU plays for the rest of the season will likely be ranked in the top 65 of the RPI for the remainder of the season, and ULM will be no different as they come in riding a five-game winning streak and sit 24-8 overall on the season.
The ULM team that LSU defeated 14-1 in five innings last season, and holds a 7-0 all-time series advantage against, has emerged at a giant-killer in 2015, earning wins already against Wisconsin, and more recently, a 9-1 run-rule victory over weekend foe Ole Miss in Oxford two weeks ago.
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.