BATON ROUGE — The eighth ranked LSU softball team (20-5, 2-1 SEC) opens its home Southeastern Conference schedule on Saturday with a double header in Tiger Park at 11 a.m. against Tennessee (12-14, 2-1 SEC).
“We are excited and ready to play this weekend,” said head coach Yvette Girouard. “The weather looks like it will be incredible this weekend, and we are hoping for a big crowd, especially since we moved our games up to not conflict with LSU baseball. I hope that Tiger Fans will make a day of it on the LSU campus, coming to the softball double header and then walking over to baseball.”
Free Tickets to Saturday’s double header are available at all Baton Rouge area Winn Dixie’s. The Tigers will be autographing free posters following the second game on Saturday.
This SEC weekend series will be broadcast by the LSU Sports Network on 107.3 FM in Baton Rouge and on www.LSUsports.net. Both Saturday and Sunday’s broadcast will begin at 10:45 a.m.
The Saturday double header will be televised on a tape delayed basis by the Pelican Sports Network in Baton Rouge on Cox Channel 18. The games can be seen on Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 9 a.m.
LSU is 7-2 versus Tennessee over the past four years. The Tigers swept the Lady Vols in a double header last year at Tiger Park, 4-0 and 9-2, on LSU Senior Day.
Britni Sneed combined with former-Tiger Julie Stashko for the 4-0 shutout of the Lady Vols. Sneed struckout seven while allowing only two hits.
Former-Tiger Stacey Newton scored two of the Tigers runs. The Tigers pounded out 10 hits for eight runs in game two with pitcher Ashley Lewis accounting for two RBI.
The Tigers enter the game after taking two games from Florida in SEC action over the weekend. Sneed pitched a two-hit, 12-strikeout performance on Sunday to lead the Tigers to a 3-1 victory. Megann Steege came through with the game-winning hit that gave the Tigers the 2-1 lead.
Senior speedster Dee Douglas, who has 21 hits for an average of .339, leads the LSU bats. Douglas also leads the team with 17 stolen bases. The Tiger pitching arsenal has a combined ERA of 1.21 led by Sneed (1.26) and Lewis (0.94). Sneed leads the Tigers with 147 strikeouts in 89 innings of work.
Tennessee, a winner of just five SEC games in 1999, won two-of-three at Ole Miss to open SEC play last weekend.
The Tigers will complete the new SEC three game series on Sunday with a single game against the Lady Vols at 11 a.m. in Tiger Park.