BATON ROUGE, La. – The LSU softball team returns home on Tuesday and opens a stretch of four consecutive home games with a contest against the Nicholls State University Colonels at 6 p.m. at Tiger Park in Baton Rouge.
Tuesday’s game will be streamed live on SEC Network+, available on WatchESPN and the WatchESPN app, with Garrett Walvoord and Yvette Girouard calling all of the action. Links to the stream, as well as live stats will be available at LSUsports.net, with updates through the team’s social media pages on Facebook and Twitter.
Fans that arrive with their Turn Up Tuesday punch card will be one step closer to receiving an LSU softball visor, which will be given out at the end of the season.
The Tigers head into the matchup against the Colonels looking to bounce back after a tough weekend on the road, dropping an SEC series to the Texas A&M Aggies in College Station. LSU was able to pull out a victory in game two, while Texas A&M earned wins in the opener last Friday and finale on Sunday, as the Tigers hold a 25-5 overall record and 3-3 mark in league play.
LSU will look to return to its familiar settings to get back to its winning ways this week, as Tuesday will be the first of four games in five days for the squad heading into the weekend. LSU boasts a 19-2 home record in the friendly confines of Tiger Park, where the Tigers average nine hits and seven runs per game, while holding opponents to just four and less than two runs a game.
One of the most consistent hitters from last weekend was freshman Elyse Thornhill, who led all Tigers at the plate with a .571 batting average, with four hits and five RBIs. Thornhill made the start in all three contests, accounting for both of LSU’s runs and two of the team’s three hits in the opener against Texas A&M, earning two more in game two and driving in two more.
Senior Bianka Bell hit LSU’s only home run of the weekend to give her seven on the season, pulling her within two of team leader Sahvanna Jaquish and one within fellow senior Kellsi Kloss. Bell is currently the team leader in RBIs with 39 and runs scored with 34.
Jaquish continues to lead the team with a .438 overall batting average and total hits with 35, driving in 37 RBIs this season and scoring 29 times. Her .850 slugging percentage still leads the group, while her team-leading 24 walks aid in her .578 on-base percentage.
Even after the previous weekend, the Tiger pitching staff combined still sport a 1.84 earned run average, led by Sydney Smith and her 0.71 mark with a 6-1 overall record and four shutouts. Carley Hoover is 10-1 on the season in 69.2 innings pitched, sitting with 100 strikeouts in 16 appearances on the season.
Allie Walljasper has recorded the fewest walks with five free passes issued in 46.2 innings of work, holding an ERA of 1.65 with three complete games, a shutout and a save. She earned the only win of the weekend on Saturday, holding Texas A&M to an unearned run on four hits in the victory.
Nicholls enters the game with an overall record of 16-11, pulling off a doubleheader sweep of Sam Houston State on Sunday to sit at 3-2 in the Southland Conference. The Colonels nearly pulled off an upset of Baylor earlier this year and began the season winning eight of their first 10 games.
The Tigers have won the last 10 against Nicholls, holding a 28-1 all-time series advantage between the two sides. Last year, LSU earned a 6-1 win over the Colonels in Baton Rouge.
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.