BATON ROUGE — With only 11 regular season games remaining, including just four at home at Tiger Park, the sixth-ranked LSU softball team will host cross-town rival Southern in a mid-week game on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
The Tigers will present “Jazz Night” for their last mid-week home game as a jazz ensemble comes out to perform beginning at 5:30 p.m. on the Diamond Backer deck down the left field line. The game will be broadcast on the LSU Sports Radio Network in Baton Rouge on The X ? 104.5/104.9 FM and also in the Geaux Zone on LSUsports.net.
“This is the last chance for our fans to come out and see our seniors in a mid-week contest at home,” said LSU head coach Yvette Girouard. “There are only a few opportunities left to see some outstanding players finish out their great Tiger careers.”
Last weekend, the Tigers (42-6) swept a Southeastern Conference doubleheader series at Mississippi State, winning a pair of nine-inning contests. The Tigers are currently one game ahead of Alabama in the SEC West, and a game back of Tennessee in the overall conference standings with nine games remaining.
The Lady Jaguars (13-15) swept Grambling State in a three-game Southwestern Conference series at home last weekend to take over the lead in the SWAC Western Division, three games behind Mississippi Valley State overall.
Senior Leslie Klein currently leads LSU at the plate with a .408 batting average. The USA Softball National Player of the Year Finalist leads the Southeastern Conference with 18 doubles, two shy of the Tiger softball single-season record, with a team-best four triples, five home runs, 45 RBIs and 20 stolen bases. Having broken the LSU career record for doubles early in the season, she broke the school records for RBIs and total bases last and currently has the highest career batting average and slugging percentage in Tiger softball history.
Junior Killian Roessner and freshman Jazz Jackson are just under .400 for the year, hitting .375 and .375 clips respectively. For the year, Roessner ranks second in the SEC with 12 doubles, while also pounding five home runs with 29 RBIs. Jackson is third on the team with 31 runs scored, while ranking third on the team with 13 stolen bases. Junior Dee Dee Henderson returned to action after cracking a bone in her finger against South Carolina and is hitting .391 on the year with a team-best 26 stolen bases.
Six current Tiger starters are hitting over .300 on the season. As a team, LSU ranks third in the SEC and 10th in the nation with a .321 batting average and leads the SEC with 80 doubles. The Tigers have also recorded nine triples, 39 home runs, 83 stolen bases and scored 282 runs in 48 games.
As a team, the Tigers have a 1.17 earned run average, second best in the nation, while allowing only 1.27 runs per game. Opponents are hitting just .160 against LSU, which ranks second in the SEC. In addition, LSU pitchers have struck out 415 batters, which averages out to over nine strikeouts per seven innings.
Among the regular SEC starters, Dani Hofer leads the way with a 1.30 earned run average and is 19-1 on the season with 197 strikeouts. Senior All-American Emily Turner is 13-5 on the year with a 1.34 ERA and 132 strikeouts. Both freshman Cody Trahan and junior Tiffany Garcia are undefeated on the year, combining for a 10-0 record. Trahan has allowed only one earned run in seven appearances for a 0.24 ERA, while Garcia has a 0.90 earned run average in 10 appearances.
For the season, Southern is hitting .260 as a team, including 33 doubles, 14 triples and six home runs for a .372 slugging percentage. Courtney Chappell leads the Lady Jaguars with a .366 batting average, including seven doubles, two triples and 12 RBIs. Aruba Nicholas leads Southern with 14 RBIs, while Tiffany Darville leads the team with three home runs. The Lady Jaguars are not a team that steals often, with only 30 steals in 42 attempts, while allowing 23 steals in 37 attempts.
In the circle, Southern has recorded a 3.08 earned run average on the season, giving up an average of 4.11 runs per game. Megan Hodge leads the Lady Jags with an 11-5 record and a 2.29 ERA. The freshman leads Southern with 107 strikeouts in 110 innings with four complete-game shutouts. Jennifer Hodrick is 2-8 on the year with a 4.60 ERA and 24 strikeouts in 56.1 innings.
LSU leads the overall series with the Jaguars, 4-0, as Southern has never scored in the previous four meetings against the Tigers. All four previous contests were played at Tiger Park, including a pair of wins in 2005 as part of the Tiger Classic. Girouard is 3-0 all-time against the Jaguars, with all three meetings coming while at LSU.
Tigers now take to the road once again for a three-game SEC series at Arkansas. The series will begin with a doubleheader on Saturday at 1 p.m. and conclude with a single game on Sunday at 1 p.m. After a mid-week game at Southeastern Louisiana next Wednesday, LSU’s final regular season home games will be a three-game series against No. 1 Tennessee on April 28-29. The series begins with a doubleheader on Saturday at 3 p.m., in a game time that was pushed back two hours for television, and concludes with a single game on Sunday at 1 p.m. The first and third games of the series will be broadcast live nationally on ESPN2, in Baton Rouge on cable channel 36.