Hope is a predominant feeling at the start of any season. 

It’s easy to look ahead at what could happen or get caught up on the end goal. For college softball teams, hope still swirls around their goal of playing in Oklahoma City at the end of May. 

But for LSU softball head coach Beth Torina and her team, the Women’s College World Series isn’t their sole focus. 

The team is taking every challenge and opponent day by day. 

“What this team has really tried to do is be the best version of themselves everyday… trying hard just to be the best LSU softball team they can on Thursday Feb. 1,” Torina said. “I mean that’s the goal of every day.”

At LSU’s 2024 media day, Torina emphasized pushing her team to stay present by “putting the opponent aside and really just being us.”

For this LSU team, no matter how far it goes in the postseason, a bittersweet ending is in the cards. 

This year, the team has eight seniors. It’s returning six All-SEC players, six all-region players, five National Fastpitch Coaches Association South All-Region First Team members, two All Americans and one two-time back-to-back Gold Glove winner. 

“This senior group has just done so many things in their career, with one thing hanging left over their heads, and that’s what they will set out to do this year,” Torina said. 

It will be hard to say goodbye to a group of players with such storied histories, but Torina isn’t counting the days left with her seniors. 

“I’ll deal with my depression from losing them at the end of the season,” Torina said. “For now, I’ll find joy in watching them play every single day I get to.”

Torina said her one fear for these upperclassmen is focusing on all the lasts: the last-first game or the last at bat. She hopes the seniors shift their focus to “playing free and playing like they’re going to play forever,” Torina said. 

At the heart of this senior class is graduate student and shortstop Taylor Pleasants. She’s ranked No. 22 on D1Softball’s 100 Player Rankings and made the 2024 Preseason All-SEC Softball team. Torina complimented Pleasants, explaining that she’s one of the greatest workers the program has ever had. 

Senior Hannah Carson will return behind the plate this year after recovering from a season-ending injury in 2023. In her two games with the Tigers, she had two hits. 

“She brings a different type of maturity to us,” Torina said. “She just has veteran at-bats.”

Center fielder Ciara Briggs, a graduate student, has won back-to-back Rawlings Golden Glove Awards. Now, she says she’s shooting for a third this season. 

“It just puts into words how much work we put in as a team, and every single day at practice my teammates push me the same as I push them,” Briggs said. 

While this team is senior heavy, Torina also outlined the talented group of newcomers who will be getting playing time early this season. These freshmen will be utilized in different positions, as the coach and her staff figure out where they’re most comfortable. 

“They are really versatile,” Torina said. “The infielders all play multiple positions… we can use them in a lot of different ways.” 

A team with this much depth and experience is nothing new, especially to Pleasants. She was selected to the USA Softball National Team in 2022 and also played in the 2019 USA Softball International Cup. Pleasants explained how playing for these elite-level teams has helped her become more vocal at LSU. 

“That was really cool, but now after playing with them, I can apply it here in the things that I say and what we do,” Pleasants said. 

She has stepped up as a leader in her senior season and has been helping coach her freshman teammates. Ultimately, this has been extremely impactful for both her and their development. 

“Whenever I help them with something, it reminds me I need to do it. Definitely a two-way street there with the learning,” Pleasants said.  

In the circle this year, LSU has a new arm in Washington transfer Kelly Lynch. This is her first season in the SEC, so she’ll be able to throw unexpected and different sequences to each opponent. In the offseason alone, Lynch learned three new pitches, doubling her arsenal. 

Also pitching for LSU in her sophomore season is Sydney Berzon. She was named the NFCA All-American freshman pitcher. 

“It was a great year for development and learning for me from the best games I had to the worst ones,” Berzon said. 

The Tigers are ranked No. 15 in the preseason ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 poll. They’ll open their season at home against Nicholls State on Thursday Feb. 8.

Torina, in her 13th year, is excited for what’s to come. 

“Lucky year 13 for me,” Torina said. “This is going to be the one.”