The No. 1 LSU softball team is no joke at 30-1, but the Tigers have plenty of laughs on and off the field.
The players focus on taking care of business at practice and during games, but that doesn’t stop them from having fun when they get the chance.
“Ultimately, at the end of the day, it’s business and it’s really serious, but it’s a game,” said LSU coach Beth Torina. “And it’s a game that we’ve grown up playing and loved playing, so we’ve got to always remember to treat it as a game.”
A diverse range of personalities on LSU’s roster makes for an interesting team dynamic. Junior shortstop Bianka Bell said having a wide range of mentalities prevents things from becoming stale.
“We have a bunch of different personalities on this team,” Bell said. “This year everybody has meshed really well together. We have a lot of people that are goofy [and] a lot of people that are serious but still come off really funny. Everybody is just so different. It’s just really fun to be around everybody all the time because you never know what you’re going to get.”
Bell and sophomore second baseman Constance Quinn are responsible for a good portion of the team’s goofiness.
Radio City Music Hall might be “The Home of the Rockettes,” but for one day last spring it belonged to Bell and Quinn. The duo performed a skit on the stage to their teammates’ amusement.
“[Constance] wanted to be on stage and wanted to do something, so we just got up in front of everybody and did a little skit for everyone, and it was really funny,” Bell said. “Everybody was laughing. It just makes trips and things more enjoyable for us.”
Quinn and Bell aren’t the only ones generating laughs.
While her teammates talked to the media a few weeks ago, freshman catcher Sydney Loupe hid from the cold weather inside a cardboard box. When Bell walked out into the batting cage area and poked the box with her toe, Loupe popped out and scared her back through the locker room door.

And to think,@KSandberg23 almost ruined this. Thank goodness for iMovie. @bee_bellz @jennakreamer4 @loupeyloop11 pic.twitter.com/WEg0Ww3MYN
— Clyde Verdin Jr (@CVerdin34) March 5, 2015

Even Torina gets involved in the shenanigans at times. She said she’ll try to scare her players by hiding around the corner when they come upstairs.
“I was hiding the other day, and I thought the managers were going to be coming out of the equipment room, and it was a washing machine repair man,” Torina said. “I jumped out and scared some guy I’d never met before.”
The scare tactics, jokes and skits are entertainment value for anyone who has a chance to observe them. However, they are much more than that.
All the laughs are indicators of meaningful relationships the players have developed with each other, and none of it is forced.
“We did a lot of team bonding stuff at the beginning of the season in the fall,” sophomore pitcher Baylee Corbello said. “This team’s chemistry — it’s not fake. It’s not like we have to be friends because we’re teammates. When it’s a real, genuine thing, it just kind of comes naturally. The fun stuff just happens.”
You can reach Jack Woods on Twitter @Jack_TDR.