COLUMBUS, Ga. — The seventh-ranked LSU softball team tries to complete its own version of the Triple Crown as it tries to repeat as Southeastern Conference tournament champions after capturing its second regular season title and fourth-consecutive Western Division title as the fourth-annual postseason event begins here Thursday at South Commons Stadium.
No. 1 seed LSU will face the No. 8 seed Auburn Tigers Thursday evening at 7 p.m. in its first game of the tournament. Also in LSU’s bracket are No. 5 seed Mississippi State and No. 4 seed Arkansas which will meet in the opener of the evening session at 5 p.m.
“It is very important that we play well this weekend in Columbus to gain momentum going into the NCAA Regionals,” said head coach Glenn Moore.
Thursday night’s game, as well as all of LSU’s games will be broadcast on the LSU Sports Network (107.3 FM in Baton Rouge) and on the Internet at www.LSUsports.net. Saturday’s games will be televised on College Sports Southeast (Channel 18 in Baton Rouge), and Sunday’s championship game can be seen on Fox Sports South.
LSU all-time record at the SEC tournament is 8-4, with the Tigers going undefeated in 1999. They were 1-2 in 1997 and 3-2 in 1998.
The LSU Tigers and the Auburn Tigers have met a total of 16 times with LSU winning 14 of those contests. LSU went 3-1 against Auburn this season in Baton Rouge. LSU’s tournament record against Auburn, however, is 0-1, having lost to the Tigers in the opening game of the 1997 event. The LSU Tigers
will look to change that on Thursday.
No. 3 seed Alabama and No. 6 seed Florida will face each other in the tournament opener at 11 a.m. and No. 2 seed Kentucky and No. 7 seed South Carolina will meet to complete the opposite side of the bracket at 1 p.m.
LSU advanced through the event undefeated a year ago, knocking off Georgia, Mississippi State and Arkansas twice to secure the title.
The Tigers will learn if it will host an NCAA regional when the sites and pairings are announced on Sunday evening at 8:30 p.m. The regional will be held May 18-21.