HAMMOND, La. — After winning nine straight and 24 of its last 26, the LSU softball team moved up one spot to No. 5 in the ESPN/USA Softball poll as the Tigers prepare to travel to in-state rival Southeastern Louisiana on Wednesday at 6 p.m. at North Oak Park for their final home game of the season.
After beginning the season at No. 7 in the preseason ESPN poll, LSU (46-6) has now moved back up to No. 5 for the third time this season, its highest ranking this year. Since ESPN and USA Softball began their softball poll on Feb. 25, 2003, the Tigers have been ranked in 66 of the 75 polls (.880). LSU has also been ranked in the top 10 for 35 weeks in the poll’s history.
Last weekend, the Tigers swept Arkansas in a three-game SEC series on the road last weekend. LSU allowed just one run in the three games, while pounding out a school record 33 hits in the doubleheader on Saturday, the most for a league doubleheader in school history. In the nightcap on Saturday, senior Emily Turner threw her first career no-hitter, allowing just walks and a hit by pitch to spoil the perfect game.
The Lady Lions (27-26) are coming off a series loss to Southland Conference-leading Texas-Arlington at home. Southeastern dropped two out of three to the Lady Mavericks, but have won four of its last seven, and now sit in ninth place in the Southland, three games out of sixth.
“We have a big SEC series coming up this weekend against No. 1 Tennessee, but we can’t overlook Southeastern,” said LSU head coach Yvette Girouard. “Our team is playing about as well as they have played all season right now. I am very pleased with our performance the last two weeks and hope to keep it going this week.”
Earlier this year, the Tigers earned an 8-0 win over the Lady Lions in five innings in Tiger Park. Senior Leslie Klein broke both the RBI and total base records in that contest. Shannon Stein ended the game early for LSU on a walk-off two-RBI double in the bottom of the fifth inning. For the game, the junior went 3-for-3 with a double, a triple and three RBIs. Kristen Hobbs recorded her seventh home run of the year in the second as part of a 2-for-3 night with two RBIs, while Tayl’r Hollis and Quinlan Duhon were both 1-for-2 with two runs scored.
Tiffany Garcia started and earned the win to remain undefeated at 6-0 on the season. She allowed just a second-inning single and three walks with two strikeouts in four innings. Cody Trahan came on in the fifth and retired all three batters she faced, including two by strikeout.
Klein currently leads LSU at the plate with a .404 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, seven home runs, 49 RBIs and 20 stolen bases. With the highest career batting average and slugging percentage in school history and having broken the career records for doubles, RBIs and total bases earlier in the season, the Sunrise, Fla., native, is only one home run shy of the school record and is easing closer to LSU records for hits and runs scored.
Junior Killian Roessner is also hitting over .400 at .402, while SEC Freshman of the Week Jazz Jackson and junior Dee Dee Henderson are just under the .400 mark at .399 and .392 respectively. Roessner went 7-for-8 last Saturday and now has 13 doubles, five home runs and 30 RBIs on the year. Jackson was 9-for-14 last week and now has 34 runs scored and 15 stolen bases, while Henderson leads the team with 28 stolen bases and is third on the team with 35 runs scored.
Six current Tiger starters are hitting over .300 on the season. As a team, LSU ranks third in the SEC and 12th in the nation with a .328 batting average, while leading the SEC and ranking sixth nationally with 85 doubles. The Tigers have also hit 10 triples and 44 home runs to go along with 91 stolen bases and 308 runs scored in 52 games.
As a team, the Tigers have the second best earned run average in the NCAA at 1.12. To go along with a stellar .973 fielding percentage, only eight of LSU’s mere 63 runs allowed have been unearned. Opponents are hitting just .160 against the Tigers, while LSU has struck out 444, third best in the SEC.
Among the regular SEC starters, Turner leads the team with a 1.21 earned run average, followed closely by sophomore Dani Hofer at 1.24. Turner is 15-5 with a no-hitter, six complete-game shutouts and 147 strikeouts, while Hofer is an amazing 21-1 with two no-hitters, 10 complete-game shutouts and 207 strikeouts.
Also among the mix in the pitching rotation, Garcia is 6-0 on the season with three complete-game shutouts and a 1.02 earned run average. Trahan is 4-0 on the year with three complete-game shutouts and a mere 0.24 earned run average, giving up just one earned run in seven appearances.
Southeastern is hitting .263 as a team this season. The Lady Lions are led by Heather Sherrill with a .349 average, including 15 doubles, two triples, five home runs and 28 RBIs. Arica Rodriguez leads Southeastern with 36 RBIs, while Rebecca De la Garza leads the team with eight home runs. For the year, the Lady Lions have recorded 70 doubles and 34 home runs, but have only stolen 14 bases in 16 attempts while surrendering 49 stolen bases in 63 attempts.
Rachel Ray leads Southeastern Louisiana’s seven pitchers with a 17-10 record, including six complete-game shutouts, with a 2.12 earned run average in 33 appearances in the circle. Jenna Yoder is 5-7 on the year with a 6.55 ERA in 20 appearances, while Nicole Schoenberger is 1-3 with a 5.70 ERA in 13 appearances. As a team, Southeastern has a 4.32 ERA, but have also given up 30 unearned runs, with six shutouts and 192 strikeouts.
LSU is 9-0 all-time against Southeastern Louisiana. In the nine meetings, the Tigers have recorded an 8-0 record in Baton Rouge and a 1-0 record in Hammond, with five shutout victories and a pair of one-run wins. The Tigers swept the series last year, taking one game in Baton Rouge, 6-0, and one in Hammond, 6-3. Girouard is 50-1 all-time against the Lady Lions, including an 8-0 mark while at LSU.
The Tigers are 106-4 (.964) all-time against in-state schools and are currently riding a 55-game winning streak dating back to an April 18, 2001 loss to UL-Lafayette, 2-1. LSU has had eight games against Louisiana schools already this season, recording a perfect 8-0 mark, including two wins over Centenary and McNeese State, and one each against Louisiana-Monroe, Louisiana Tech, Southeastern Louisiana and Southern.
LSU’s final regular season home games will be a three-game series against No. 1 Tennessee next weekend. 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.