BATON ROUGE, La. – Coming off of a 50-win season and the program’s fourth trip to the Women’s College World Series in 2015, the LSU softball team on Tuesday released the 2016 regular season schedule that features 37 games in the friendly confines of Tiger Park in a 56-game slate, hosting the likes of Alabama, Florida and Washington and contests against 14 teams that were in last year’s NCAA tournament field.
In one of the best runs in team history where the Tigers earned their first-ever No. 1 national ranking during a year in which they finished 52-14 overall, the team will bring back virtually its entire offense, defense and pitching from a year ago that saw LSU win its first 25 games of the year in a streak not seen before in Baton Rouge. LSU made it to the semifinals of the WCWS, finishing third overall for the third time in four trips to Oklahoma City.
While LSU will be challenged in multiple ways throughout the year, the Tigers will have a chance to get the year off on the right foot, playing 21 of their first 26 games in Tiger Park over the month of February and beginning of March, traveling just once during that time. The highlight of that stretch is a streak of 16-straight games in Baton Rouge from February 24-March 13.
“This year’s schedule will present a great challenge for our team right from the start. With all of the teams we will host here in Baton Rouge, it will also be a great opportunity for our fans to see softball at its highest level,” head coach Beth Torina said. “From the opening weekend tournament, all the way to the regular season finale against Washington, this schedule will be packed with great softball.”
The season-opener for LSU is set for Friday, February 12 with a date against the Ohio State Buckeyes to open the 2015 Tiger Classic in Baton Rouge. The three-day tournament runs Friday-Sunday, as the Tigers will play Ohio State, North Florida, UConn once and Pacific twice that first weekend.
LSU will host two more tournaments after that, with the Purple & Gold Challenge set for February 26-28, with just three teams in LSU, Illinois State and Texas Tech, as the Tigers will play each team twice. The final pre-conference tournament is the LSU Invitational March 4-6 in Baton Rouge, featuring games against Memphis, Tennessee Tech, Liberty and Louisiana Tech throughout the weekend.
A trek to Palm Springs for the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic the second week of the season is the only away set of games for LSU during the early portion of the schedule, as the opening game of the tournament for the Tigers is a rematch of the 2015 NCAA Baton Rouge Super Regional against Arizona. LSU will go on to play Bethune-Cookman, UC Santa Barbara, UCF and 2015 WCWS participant UCLA to close the event.
The rest of the non-conference set of games for the Tigers throughout the rest of the campaign during the middle of the week has LSU taking on hosting South Alabama (Feb. 24), ULM (March 1), Longwood (March 8), Nicholls (March 22), Southern Miss (April 6), Northwestern State (April 20) and McNeese State, while traveling to take on Louisiana Tech (March 15) and Southeastern Louisiana (April 12).
Southeastern Conference play will feature 24 games against eight conference foes beginning in March, leading to the 2016 SEC Softball Tournament May 11-14 that will be held in Starkville, Mississippi.
League play will begin with a bang as the Tigers renew its rivalry with the Alabama Crimson Tide March 11-13 in Tiger Park, as the two teams last locked horns in the elimination game of the WCWS back in May, with LSU prevailing 5-3. The home series of SEC games ramps up as LSU welcomes the defending national champion Florida Gators for a series March 25-26, Kentucky April 8-10 and South Carolina April 22-24.
Texas A&M will be the first road opponent for the Tigers March 18-20 in College Station, while also traveling to Georgia (April 1-3), getting an early preview of the conference tournament host site at Mississippi State (April 15-17), before wrapping up the road schedule with the Arkansas Razorbacks (April 29-May 1).
“Every game in the SEC is exciting, and every team in this league is talented. We will have our work cut out for us this season as we host Florida, Alabama, Kentucky and South Carolina,” Torina said. “I hope our fans will be excited to see these series, come out and cheer us on and make Tiger Park one of the toughest venues for visitors in the entire country.”
A quirk that has been prominently featured throughout the last few seasons is the non-conference or “bye” weekend that the league teams have at some point during conference play. The last two years, LSU has used this specific weekend to take on a blue-blood softball program, and this year will be no different as the last regular season weekend of the season the Tigers will host a three-game set against the Washington Huskies on May 7-8 in Baton Rouge.
2015 was the first time in school history that LSU was the host site of a regional and super regional in consecutive weeks, as the NCAA tournament begins May 19 at 16 regional sites across the country. The top eight or highest remaining seeds will then host the super regional portion May 26-29 with a berth in the 2016 Women’s College World Series at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium – OGE Energy Field June 2-8 in Oklahoma City.
“We are so excited to see what is up next for LSU softball,” Torina said. “This team is working very hard this offseason to make sure they are ready for the spring. They are extremely talented, and it will be fun to see them in action this season.”
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.