BATON ROUGE, La. – The No. 3 LSU softball team will open the 2016 campaign on Friday evening as the Tigers begin play in the Tiger Classic with a matchup against the Ohio State Buckeyes at 5 p.m. at Tiger Park in Baton Rouge.
The opening tournament of the season will feature LSU, along with the Buckeyes, Connecticut Huskies, North Florida Ospreys and Pacific Tigers for a 12-game weekend at Tiger Park. Each of LSU’s first four games of the weekend on Friday and Saturday will be streamed live through SEC Network+ with Lyn Rollins and Yvette Girouard calling all of the action.
For fans coming out to the park this weekend, 2016 schedule magnets and team posters will be available at the fan zone areas, while those unable to make the games this weekend can follow along with live stats and box scores of every game at LSUsports.net. There will also be updates through the team’s social media pages on Facebook and Twitter.
After the fall practices and a month of preseason work leading up to Friday’s opener, the Tigers are looking forward to opening the year against an opponent wearing a different color uniform over the course of the weekend.
“I think we’re tired of playing ourselves, and it’s going to be nice to get us out on the field and see what we look like against a team that isn’t wearing Purple and Gold,” fifth-year head coach Beth Torina said. “Every coach is ready to see the first pitch to really know what their team is going to be all about.”
LSU heads into the new year returning virtually all of its offense, defense and pitching from a year ago that raced out to the best start in program history and advanced to the Women’s College World Series for the fourth time in program history in 2015. Over 80 percent of LSU’s leading hitters and pitchers will return in 2016, including all five All-Americans in Bianka Bell, Bailey Landry, Sahvanna Jaquish, Carley Hoover and Allie Walljasper.
Bell, Landry and Hoover are each on the USA Softball Player of the Year Top 50 Watch List that came out last week, while Bell and Hoover are both of LSU’s representatives on the Preseason All-SEC Team. LSU also returns SEC All-Freshman pick Emily Griggs, First Team All-SEC catcher Kellsi Kloss and SEC All-Defensive Team member Sandra Simmons.
Other key returners feature Constance Quinn, Sydney Bourg, Jenna Kreamer and Alayna Falcon, as the last two help make up this year’s five-member senior class along with Bell, Kloss and Simmons.
LSU welcomes seven newcomers to the squad, adding to the team’s overall depth with six freshmen and a transfer suiting up for the Tigers this spring. The transfer is Randi Provost who sat out last season and could only practice, hailing from nearby Teurlings Catholic. The six freshmen dot the various recruiting spots the coaching staff has used throughout the country with pitcher Sydney Smith from Minnesota, infielder Shemiah Sanchez from Georgia and Amber Serrett from Texas, while pulling three from their own backyard in utility players Taylor Satchell and Elyse Thornhill and outfielder Akiya Thymes all from Louisiana.
LSU will play five games total this weekend, beginning with Ohio State at 5 p.m. Friday, before turning around and taking on North Florida in the nightcap. On Saturday, the Tigers will battle with UConn at 5 p.m. and Pacific to close action for day two, ending the event on Sunday with another game against Pacific that is set for 11:30 a.m.
The Tigers are 15-4 all-time in season openers, while holding a 17-2 record in home openers in Tiger Park in Baton Rouge. This weekend is the sixth straight season that the squad will be opening the year in the friendly confines, as coming into 2016 the team has won three of those five openers dating back to the 2011 season.
Ohio State comes into the weekend receiving votes in both major polls, returning an offense that hit .348 on the season last year. North Florida is the only other team coming in this weekend that had a winning record last season, earning a 31-28 record and finishing 12-9 in the Atlantic Sun. Pacific ended the year with a 19-36 record with seven of those wins in the West Coast Conference, while Connecticut was 18-35 and won just four games in the American.
Against the Buckeyes, LSU is 4-1 in the all-time series, while holding a 1-0 series advantage against both Connecticut and Pacific. Saturday’s meeting against North Florida will be the first against the Ospreys in program history.
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.