LSU Gold

Softball Opens NCAA Tournament Friday with Fordham

+0
Softball Opens NCAA Tournament Friday with Fordham

BATON ROUGE – The 11th-ranked LSU softball team opens the 2018 NCAA Baton Rouge Regional on Friday with a contest against the six-time Atlantic 10 Tournament Champion Fordham Rams at 5:30 p.m. in Tiger Park.

LSU, the No. 11 overall national seed in this year’s tournament will host its fourth consecutive regional beginning Friday, also welcoming UL-Lafayette and Houston. Those two teams will open the regional in the first game of the day on Friday at 3 p.m.

All games throughout the regional will be available to stream live on ESPN3, which can be found through WatchESPN and the WatchESPN app. Lyn Rollins and Yvette Girouard will be on the call for every game of the weekend, cover the team’s run throughout the tournament.

For all information for the regional this weekend, click here. The site features links to video stream, live stats and any updates from Tiger Park. The site will also feature a link to free live audio coverage of LSU games at www.LSUsports.net/live with Patrick Wright calling the action locally in Baton Rouge on Talk 107.3 FM. For fans looking to purchase tickets, click here.

Series Records
Fordham: LSU leads 2-0
UL-Lafayette: LSU leads 14-9
Houston: LSU leads 6-3

Torina’s Thoughts
“We need to keep playing softball the same way we have. We’ve been playing good softball the last four to five weeks. Our student-athletes understand how to win this time of year. Our players have been tested all year and have played in big moments. We are excited to be in front of our fans this weekend as we have the best fans in the country.” 

About the Tigers
The Tigers go into the NCAA Tournament with a 41-14 overall record. LSU finished the regular season with a sweep of Arkansas for fifth place in the SEC. The Tigers defeated Ole Miss in the first round of the SEC Tournament and then fell to Tennessee in the quarterfinals. LSU is one of nine Southeastern Conference teams to earn a national seed as all 13 teams from the SEC made the NCAA Tournament for the second-straight year.

Amanda Doyle leads the Tigers at the plate with a .335 average. She leads the team with 44 RBI and seven home runs. Aliyah Andrews is hitting .333 and has stolen 38-of-39 bases this season. In the circle, Allie Walljasper has the lowest ERA of the staff at 1.00. She is 16-5 with six shutouts and 125 strikeouts in 160.2 innings of work. Carley Hoover has 1.26 ERA with a 16-6 record. She owns eight shutouts and leads the team in strikeouts with 174 in 144.1 innings. 

Scouting the Field 
Fordham
Fordham has won six-straight Atlantic 10 tournament championships and comes to Baton Rouge with a 33-21 overall record. The Rams finished second in the conference. The Tigers are 2-0 against the Rams all-time. 

Chelsea Skrepenak leads the Rams at the plate with a .329 average. She owns eight home runs and 33 RBI. Paige Rauch leads the team with 44 RBI and 16 home runs. As a team, Fordham has hit 59 home runs this season, which is 16th in the country for home runs per game at 1.09. In the circle, Rauch has a 14-2 record with a 1.55 ERA. She owns two shutouts with 78 strikeouts in 108.1 innings of work. Madie Aughinbaugh is 16-7 on the year with a 2.75 ERA and eight shutouts. In 153.0 innings, she leads the team in strikeouts with 98.

UL-Lafayette
Louisiana-Lafayette finished the 2018 regular season with a 38-14 overall. The Ragin Cajuns were 21-6 in the Sun Belt, finishing second behind Texas State. The Tigers and the Ragin Cajuns met in last year’s regional in Baton Rouge. LSU owns a 14-9 record against ULL.

Alissa Dalton leads the Ragin Cajuns at the dish with a .376 average and in RBI with 30. She owns three home runs and has struck out only five times on the year. In the circle, Summer Ellyson is the ace with a 1.43 ERA and a 21-8 record. In 211.0 innings of work, she has struck out 199 batters and holds her opponents to a .173 batting average.

Houston
Houston comes to Tiger Park with a 36-20 overall record. The Cougars have won five out of the last six games and finished second in the American Athletic Conference behind South Florida. The Tigers own a 6-3 record over the Cougars.

Sarah Queen leads the offense for the Cougars with a .366 batting average. She owns a team-leading 10 home runs and 37 RBI. Arielle James is hitting second-best on the squad at .363 with 12 doubles. In the circle, Savannah Heebner is 25-9 on the year with a 1.17 ERA. She owns 12 shutouts and 145 strikeouts in 220.2 innings of work.

What’s On Deck
The winner of the 2018 NCAA Baton Rouge Regional will advance to face the winner of the Tallahassee Regional, featuring host and No. 8 seed Florida State, Auburn, Kennesaw State and Jacksonville State.

For all of the latest news and information on Tiger softball, visit www.lsusports.net/softball. Fans can also follow the program on its social media outlets at www.Facebook.com/lsusoftball along with @lsusoftball and @BethTorina on Twitter and @lsusoftball on Instagram.