OXFORD, Miss. — The ninth-ranked LSU women’s softball team, riding a seven-game winning streak, begins two weeks of Southeastern Conference play in this state Friday when it opens a four-game set against Ole Miss.
The Friday doubleheader begins at 5 p.m. and the final two games of the series are set for Saturday at 1 p.m. All four games will be carried on the LSU Sports Network (107.3 FM in Baton Rouge).
Next weekend LSU will travel to Mississippi State for a four-game set.
The Tigers, 27-7 and 5-1 in SEC play, are coming off a doubleheader sweep of Northwestern State Wednesday in Natchitoches, by scores of 5-0 and 8-0. LSU’s last action in the SEC was last Friday when it swept Florida in a doubleheader at Tiger Park.
The Tigers find themselves in the SEC lead after Alabama and South Carolina split a doubleheader earlier in the week. LSU had four games in hand however on the Tide, having played just six league contests while Alabama, the 15th-ranked team in the country, is 8-2.
In the East, South Carolina and Kentucky are leading with .500 winning percentages but USC is 6-6 and Kentucky 2-2.
“The SEC is a different league this year,” said LSU Coach Glenn Moore. “We can’t just assume that we are going to go on the road and win this year as we might have in the past. You can look at the records and tell that everyone is going to beat up on each other this year. It will be up to the girls to focus in on every situation to be able to possibly get two or three of the four games on the road this weekend.”
One player who has really been focusing for LSU is senior third baseman Ashlee Ducote. The Alexandria Tiger is last week’s SEC player of the week and is second in the league in hitting at .447 and first in the conference with a .787 slugging percentage. Ducote has six home runs and 36 RBI.
Expected to pitch for LSU will be sophomore Britni Sneed and junior Ashley Lewis. Sneed is 10-5 with 136 strikeouts, while Lewis is 10-2 with a 1.40 ERA. Both posted wins on Wednesday night in Natchitoches.
Ole Miss is fourth in the SEC West with a 4-4 record and a 17-22 mark overall. The Rebels split with Southern Mississippi Wednesday in Hattiesburg, winning the first game, 3-2 in 11 innings, before falling in the nightcap, 6-4. While LSU is first in hitting in the SEC at .314, the Rebels come into the four-game series last at .227.
LSU returns home to Tiger Park Wednesday night at 5 p.m. for a regionally-televised doubleheader with 16th-ranked Louisiana-Lafayette.