In a battle of top-25 teams, the No. 13-ranked LSU softball team will host its first Southeastern Conference home series this weekend against No. 17 Kentucky beginning with game one at 6 p.m. Friday.
LSU (20-5, 2-1 SEC) began its conference schedule on the road last weekend, taking two of three from Mississippi State, but this weekend’s series pits the Tigers against one of the hottest teams in the conference.
Kentucky (19-4, 2-1 SEC) torched No. 24 North Carolina for an 18-0 win, while receiving the ninth no-hitter in the school’s history from freshman pitcher Katie Henderson.
The Tigers will just have to hope the Wildcats lose some of that momentum somewhere along the flight from Lexington, Ky., to Baton Rouge.
“They have one of the best coaches in the country, so they’ll be well prepared,” said LSU coach Beth Torina. “They’ll be intelligent. They’ll be solid. We know we can expect that from them. We just have to play our game.”
LSU hosted its first game at Tiger Park in almost a month on Wednesday in a midweek tuneup against in-state foe Nicholls State. The Tigers breezed to an 8-0 run-rule victory after the fifth inning, but against Kentucky the strength of LSU’s home-field advantage will be tested.
Junior pitcher Ashley Czechner acknowledged the team has been looking forward to the SEC home opener against the Wildcats for a while.
“We’re so excited to have Kentucky come to Tiger Park,” Czechner said. “We’re definitely going to focus on keeping the energy up.”
LSU has played 11 games at home this season and won all but one. Coincidentally, the lone loss for the Tigers came against North Carolina — the same team Kentucky most recently made an emphatic 18-0, no-hit statement against.
Both teams took two of three in their opening conference series, and both have been playing solid softball since their respective losses.
After the 2-1 loss in game two against Mississippi State, LSU outscored the Bulldogs in game three and Nicholls on Wednesday by a combined run total of 19 to 2. Since its 3-1 game one loss in a series against Ole Miss, Kentucky tallied a three-game winning streak, outscoring opponents 28 to 4.
LSU has faced seven other ranked opponents this season and had mixed results, posting a 3-4 record in those games, but Torina said playing that many ranked opponents in non-conference play should benefit them this weekend.
“Hopefully our non-conference schedule made us prepared so we know what to expect,” Torina said. “We can just treat it like a regular game and we don’t have to put any added pressure on ourselves about it.”
