With only four teams left on this season’s schedule, the LSU softball team looks to capture its second straight SEC Title. On Thursday afternoon, LSUsports.nets Joey Papania sat down with head coach Glenn Moore to assess this seasons recent success and future goals.
Papania: The last time we spoke was at the beginning of March. At that time, you mentioned the team was undergoing four stages, forming, storming, norming and performing, and you felt the team was in the latter stages of the storming phase. How have they progressed to this point?
Moore: I think I hit that pretty accurately because we have really been performing well as of late. We went on a 19 game win streak prior to losing to South Carolina in a game that we played very well, especially offensively. The girls have really jumped into that last stage. There’s always room for improvement, but I do feel we are playing at the top of our game right now.
Papania: Within the team’s 19 game win streak was a four game sweep at Mississippi State. How important from a conference standpoint was that series?
Moore: Mississippi St. is slowly becoming a softball power, and they have really played well against some good schools beating Pac-10 powerhouse Stanford. They’ve also played really well against some other teams. To go there and beat them in their park says something for where the team is. I think that was the weekend we really peaked and we really played well both from a pitching standpoint and from a hitting standpoint. Our hitters were exceptional. We ran their pitchers out of almost every game and they were forced to use multiple pitchers. We’ve played well before in a four game series, but to play against a top 25 team and play that well consistently can really do a lot for the team’s confidence.
Papania: Last time we spoke you mentioned that the pitching staff, despite maintaining a 1.04 team ERA, had been a little disappointing. Has the pitching staff made strides to improve their approach?
Moore: No doubt. The pitching is really coming around. Britni (Sneed) was struggling earlier and Ashley (Lewis) was not throwing at the top of her game, but she was throwing fairly well. Britni has definitely picked it up since we’ve talked; she’s had two no-hitters and was one out from a perfect game. Ashley’s holding the same status as she was before. She only has three losses, one coming from No. 1 Washington, so she’s done well.
Papania: You’ve also used Dee Douglas and Trina Peel in the pitching rotation. How have they performed?
Moore: Well Trina has kind of moved out of the rotation, mainly because she was struggling offensively and we felt that we wanted to utilize her practice time offensively and that has paid off as well. Dee should see some playing time as early as tonight against SW Texas St.
Papania: You said that you would have liked to have known by mid-April, not necessarily who your nine best players were, but who the best nine were, those that would work well together. Have you found that combination?
Moore: We feel comfortable that we have. Of course we’ll shift players according to who’s pitching and who can hit at the time, but we’re really comfortable with the line-up that we have. I guess one of our biggest concerns was having someone to protect Ashley Ducote, to keep other teams from pitching around her. ShauntT Fremin has kind of falling into that fifth spot and has performed really well in crucial situations.
Papania: Some of the losses that you’ve faced this year have been against top ranked teams. One of those losses was against No.1 Washington, a team you beat earlier in the year. Another was to Southern Mississippi, a top 10 team. Has playing such a difficult schedule helped strengthen the team?
Moore: One of the reasons we went through the storming stage we talked about was because we were not performing or having the level of success we would have liked to have against weaker opponents. We had to keep in perspective that we put this schedule together for a reason, so that we’d be prepared later on. Facing the top ranked teams and the All-American pitchers, we seen five All-American pitchers this year, and having success winning some of those games has paid off as we see average or a little above average pitching. Our offense leading the conference in hitting is a result of having a tough schedule and seeing tough pitching.
Papania: Has the fact that this is such a veteran team helped them progress through the stages?
Moore: I think many other teams would have reverted or gone in a different direction. But this team has been there before and has experienced that failure. This is a smart team, like you said, they are mature so they know which direction to go in from a mistake or a failure and turn it in to a positive down the road.
Papania: Can you talk a little about the upcoming series with Alabama to close out the season?
Moore: This will be the third straight year that this series will determine the conference champion. We still have some tough teams to face before them, especially with Arkansas playing well coming in this weekend. I hate to look too far ahead, but the way things are looking it appears it will come down to Alabama and us.
Papania: Finally have their been any surprises from a performance standpoint?
Moore: Stacey Newton has moved up in the order and produced for us. We’ve always felt like she was capable of doing that, but was a little slow maturing into that role. (Focusing mainly on softball and not splitting her time with basketball) has definitely helped her this year. She’s a hard worker, maybe not as naturally talented in the sport as some other athletes, but she overcomes that with her hard work. The time she spends in the cage and the extra effort she puts forth really pays off for her. ShauntT Fremin has been huge for us protecting our All-American, Ashley Ducote. Straight through our line-up kids are having great years offensively. Like I said I was a little concerned with our pitching earlier, I couldn’t really figure out what the problem was. But I think weve gotten to the source of it and made some corrections, and the pitchers are back on top. I’m really pleased with Auburne Ziober playing the role she is as a utility player and filling that No. 9 spot, we need some speed there and we need more of a lead-off hitter.