BATON ROUGE, La. – The LSU softball team will host its final pre-conference tournament of the season beginning on Friday, welcoming Louisiana Tech, Liberty, Memphis and Tennessee Tech for the LSU Invitational this weekend in Baton Rouge.
The weekend will feature 12 total contests between the five teams, as LSU will play five beginning Friday evening with the Tigers taking on Memphis and Tennessee Tech at 5 and 7:30 p.m., Liberty and Louisiana Tech Saturday also at 5 and 7:30 p.m. before closing out play on Sunday at 12 p.m. against Tennessee Tech.
There are a host of events going on this weekend around the south end of campus, with baseball, gymnastics, softball and men’s tennis all hosting competitions in the general area. Fans on Friday are asked to be prepared for heavier than normal traffic with all four having events at various times throughout the day.
For fans that plan on checking out the Tiger baseball team this weekend and also want to see the softball team in action, a ticket stub from one of the three games at Alex Box this weekend will allow fans to purchase a $2 general admission ticket to this weekend’s tournament games.
Sunday’s game against Tennessee Tech will be streamed live online on SEC Network+, which is available through WatchESPN, with continuous updates provided through the team’s social media pages on Facebook and Twitter.
Now more than halfway through their 16-game home stand, the Tigers go into their final non-conference tournament of the season hoping to build on the momentum of their 10-game winning streak and fine tune all aspects before opening SEC play a week from Friday.
“There are definitely some things we need to get cleaned up going into next weekend, and build up our confidence in some areas,” head coach Beth Torina said. “It’s going to be nice to get some people some at-bats and have everybody from one to 23 prepared for this weekend and going into the coming weeks.”
LSU was able to push that winning streak to 10 on Tuesday, defeating the ULM Warhawks 8-0 in five innings to improve to 14-2 on the season and 10-1 at home in Tiger Park. The squad scored six runs in the fourth and two more in the fifth to close out the game in strong fashion to keep its streak alive and earn their eighth run-rule victory of the season.
Putting its depth on display, LSU was able to get some key reserves some action during the contest which only adds to the overall strength of the group as a whole when it counts most late, as the team got production from Sydney Bourg, Jenna Kreamer, Alayna Falcon and Amber Serrett offensively at the plate.
Kreamer and Serrett each led the team at the plate with two hits, as both of Serrett’s hits were doubles, while Kreamer had the game-ending hit to ice it for the Tigers. The senior drove in two along with Falcon who had a two-RBI double, while Bourg had a triple and drove in two herself.
Constance Quinn currently leads the team with a .515 batting average, as Sahvanna Jaquish leads in both hits with 19 and slugging percentage at .895. Kellsi Kloss has one more RBI than Jaquish with 21, while also leading the team in walks with 21.
Pitching a two-hit shutout and lowering LSU’s overall ERA to 1.09, Sydney Smith earned her second shutout of the season to lead the pitching staff in that category, with an earned run average of 0.37.
Sophomore Carley Hoover, who on Thursday was named the LSWA Co-Pitcher of the Month, leads the group with a 5-0 overall record with 48 strikeouts in 29 total innings. Allie Walljasper has only issued two walks this season and two earned runs, while Baylee Corbello is 3-0 with a 1.87 ERA.
LSU and Memphis opened the season last year with LSU winning 7-2 over the visiting Tigers, while later on that season earning a 7-5 victory over Louisiana Tech. This is the first of two meetings against Louisiana Tech this season, as LSU will make the trip to Ruston in two weeks.
This weekend will be the first-ever meetings between LSU and Liberty.
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.