BATON ROUGE — After posting four straight shutout victories, the fifth-ranked Tiger softball team hits the road to take on Southern Miss in a doubleheader on Wednesday beginning at 5 p.m. at the Southern Miss Softball Complex in Hattiesburg, Miss.
The Tigers (24-7) swept No. 24 South Carolina last weekend and did not allow a single run to the Gamecocks, who average over four runs a game. Southern Miss (15-18) is coming off a series loss at South Florida.
“We are looking forward to the games on Wednesday and continuing our success from last week,” said LSU head coach Yvette Girouard. “I like the way we are playing right now and this is a good way to help us get ready for a big SEC series with Georgia at home this weekend.
Southeastern Conference Player of the Week Trena Peel leads the Tiger at the plate. The senior from Aurora, Colo., is batting .404 on the season with a school record 10 triples. Last weekend, she broke the LSU career triples mark with 23, surpassing former Tiger Dee Douglas.
In the circle, the Tigers are led by All-American Britni Sneed. The senior from Houston, Texas, is averaging 11.5 strikeouts per seven innings and needs just eight K’s to break into the top 10 in career strikeouts in NCAA history.
“Britni has really started to look like the Britni of old,” said Girouard. “She is in her zone lately and is really dominating on the mound. Our offense has also really started to come around after a slow start and our defense has continued stepped up. I really like what I see right now from our team.”
LSU and USM have met seven times with the Golden Eagles holding the 4-3 advantage. Last year, LSU won the only meeting, 5-0, in the Purple & Gold Challenge in Baton Rouge. Only one meeting between the pair has come away from Baton Rouge. Southern Miss defeated LSU, 2-1, in a tournament at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Okla., in 2000
LSU returns to conference action against SEC Eastern Division leading Georgia on Saturday at Tiger Park. The Tigers open with a doubleheader beginning at 11 a.m. and conclude with a single game on Sunday at 11 a.m.
The series will be the last SEC home weekend series for the Tigers this season, who are on the road in conference play the entire month of April. LSU will face Auburn in a midweek series at home during the first week in May.