BATON ROUGE — The eighth-ranked LSU softball team travels to Gainesville for its Southeastern Conference opening series against the Florida Gators on Saturday and Sunday.
The Tigers (18-4) will face Florida in a doubleheader on Saturday at 2 p.m. and a single game on Sunday at noon. This is the first weekend on the new three-game series in the SEC for the Tigers. If the LSU men’s basketball team does not advance past Friday night’s second round matchup with Arkansas in the second round of the SEC Tournament, the games will be available on the LSU Sports Network on 107.3 FM in Baton Rouge and www.LSUsports.net.
“We are ready for SEC play,” said head coach Yvette Girouard. “The girls have been working hard and are fired up to face the Gators. I think our success to this point will be a great help to us in the SEC.”
The defending back-to-back SEC champion Tigers enter the weekend with a record of 18-4. The Florida Gators hold a record of 14-5 for the season and lead the Eastern division.
LSU leads the all-time series with the Gators, 5-3. The Tigers swept Florida last season at Tiger Park in Baton Rouge, 4-0 and 6-3. LSU has won the last five meetings with the Gators. Florida had won the first three meetings between the teams.
Senior Ashley Lewis hurled a one-hitter with seven strikeouts against the Gators in the 4-0 win of 2000. Former Tiger All-American, Ashlee Ducote hit a three-run homer in each game of the double header to lead LSU to victory.
LSU is riding a five-game winning streak following a 1-0 shutout of Northwestern State on Wednesday night in Tiger Park. Junior pitcher Britni Sneed struck out 15 Lady Demon batters on the night to tie her LSU single-game record that she broke on Sunday evening against Tulsa.
The Tigers are led at the plate by senior Dee Douglas who has 20 hits and a batting average of .364. Douglas also leads the team with 15 stolen bases. Freshman Julie Wiese is second on the team in batting with an average of .358 and a team-leading five home runs.
LSU will return home on March 14 for a double header at Tiger Park against Louisiana Tech at 5:30 p.m. before playing host to Tennessee for the SEC home opener at Tiger Park on Saturday at 11 a.m.