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No. 22 Softball Makes Mid-Week Trip to SLU

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No. 22 Softball Makes Mid-Week Trip to SLU

BATON ROUGE – The No. 22 LSU softball team will continue its season’s long seven-game road trip and wraps up its season series with a Wednesday stop at Southeastern Louisiana. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. at North Oak Park in Hammond.

LSU (29-10) has pieced together a 24-game winning streak versus unranked opponents. The Tigers also are ranked in both Top 25 polls for consecutive weeks and check in at No. 21 [USA Softball] and No. 22 [NFCA], respectively. 

Southeastern Louisiana (8-28) is coming off its best offensive effort of the season in a 12-8 Monday victory over Southern. The Lady Lions collected a season-high 15 hits, nine of them going for extra bases. Katie Doyle, Meghan Gomez and Ariell Van Hook tallied two RBIs apiece.

For the season, Gomez has powered home eight home runs and 21 RBIs to pace SLU. Michelle Duhe has produced a team-leading 33 hits from the leadoff spot. The Lady Lions has received a staff-best three wins from Vicki Honeycutt in the circle.

“We’re making sure that we’re staying focused on Southeastern Louisiana,” head coach Beth Torina said. “We want to play with our best effort any time we take the field, and this game is no different. Our in-state opponents always play with a lot of energy when they face LSU. We’ve been playing really well and are in a good spot. I feel like we’re strong mentally. Our goal is to go out and continue to do the things that have made us successful up to this point.”

LSU carries a 17-1 series edge over Southeastern Louisiana, including a 7-0 victory earlier this season at Tiger Park. Allison Falcon, Ashley Langoni and Morgan Russell picked up RBIs during a five-run first inning, while Brittany Mack fired a three-hitter highlighted by six strikeouts.

Langoni is currently the Tiger triple crown leader with a .330 batting average, six home runs and 26 RBIs. She ripped a two-run dinger during the first inning of last Saturday’s 3-2 win over No. 2 Alabama and is one homer away from matching Quinlan Duhon for the No. 4 position on LSU’s all-time list.

Juliana Santos is right behind Langoni with a .326 hitting clip and 19 RBIs. She has notched hits in 21 of her 32 appearances on the season.

Falcon is batting .325 and is third on the squad with 16 RBIs. She recently had a career-long six-game hitting streak come to a close during the Alabama series finale. Her RBI single in the third inning proved to be the game-winner in Saturday’s victory over the Crimson Tide.

Ashley Applegate has hit safely in seven of her last nine games to improve her average by 23 points to a .236 ration. She has scored nine of her 14 runs and added all five of her RBIs since March 9.

LSU’s pitching staff has combined to toss 17 shutouts, two shy of its season total from 2011. Reigning two-time Louisiana Pitcher of the Week, Rachele Fico, has won her last seven decisions en route to a sparkling 14-4 mark and a 0.81 ERA. 

Brittany Mack will look to bounce back from consecutive setbacks at No. 2 Alabama. The senior right-hander is 12-6 and amassed 120 strikeouts over her 106.1 innings of work.

Meghan Patterson has been touched up for one run in her last 25 frames of action dating back to Feb. 26. The Destrehan native is 3-0 and tossed a complete game with five strikeouts last Wednesday versus Nicholls State.

Live stats for Wednesday’s game will be available in the Geaux Zone at LSUsports.net/live. There is no radio broadcast of the Southeastern Louisiana contest on the LSU Sports Radio Network.

Fans also can follow every pitch of LSU softball this season via live in-game updates on LSU softball’s social media outlets at www.Facebook.com/lsusoftball and @lsu_softball on Twitter.