For most No. 1 teams, the lineup is set in stone. Every player has her spot in the order, and coaches and fans alike view the lineup as a sacred entity, not to be changed unless it stops working.
But the top-ranked LSU softball team’s coach Beth Torina doesn’t subscribe to this belief. Throughout the Tigers’ (28-1, 5-1 Southeastern Conference) historic season, she inserted players in various slots of the lineup to give them an opportunity to contribute and create different matchups against opposing pitchers.
Torina’s flexibility, coupled with the team’s motto of “Power of One,” has created an atmosphere of positive competitiveness in the clubhouse that pushes every player — from the starters to the bench players — to improve daily.
“Our players that don’t play on an everyday basis are working equally as hard or harder than everyone else,” Torina said. “They know that their time is coming. I’m fully convinced that to have a championship team, there will be somebody that’s a huge factor down the stretch that hasn’t done everything they’re capable of yet … It’s part of the whole team mentality that we have that everybody has a role.”
Last season, the Tigers had seven players make at least 60 appearances and six players make 60 or more starts. While LSU has kept a core of seven players starting or appearing in every game this season, the new additions to the lineup bring energy and an all-in-for-the-team mentality to the plate.
Despite not starting a game in 2014, senior utility players Dylan Supak and Kailey McCasland and junior outfielder Alayna Falcon have combined for 17 starts this season. Though they don’t start every game, Supak and McCasland keep themselves in the game by scouting opposing pitchers and giving their teammates quick reports before they go up to bat.
“It prepares us for when we’re going up to bat, if we get a pinch hit,” McCasland said. “Every first pinch of everyone’s at-bat, I think about what I would do with that pitch, and then the rest of the at-bat, I focus on whoever’s up to bat.”
Supak and McCasland have contributed in their combined 12 starts as the Tigers’ designated players. Five of Supak’s six hits this season are doubles, and McCasland had one of the most memorable plays of the Tigers’ season in her first at-bat of the year.
Against Central Arkansas on Feb. 13, McCasland pinch-hit for junior catcher Kellsi Kloss with a 7-0 lead in sixth inning. McCasland hit the Tigers’ only inside-the-park home run this season to extend LSU’s lead to 8-0, which secured a win by mercy rule.
Falcon rotated with freshman outfielder Emily Griggs early in the season in the left field spot. In her eight appearances, Falcon has hit .222 and maintained a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage.
“Our roles, whether it’s cheering in the dugout or going in to pinch-hit, we try to get the job done,” Falcon said. “We believe in ourselves that we can move the runner over. If we’re in the dugout, we bring liveliness to the team.”
Returners are not the only contributors for the Tigers out of the dugout this season. Transfer junior infielder Jenna Kreamer and freshman infielder Sydney Bourg have stepped up at third base when sophomore third baseman Sahvanna Jaquish moves to catcher.
In five of her six starts, Kreamer has played as a purely defensive player at third base. She has maintained a perfect fielding percentage on the hot corner. Although Bourg has notched two errors in her nine appearances, she has four putouts and five assists in her freshman season.
Regardless of whom Torina brings off the bench, the Tigers have proven they perform no matter the circumstances, be it a midweek game or a matchup of the top two teams in the nation.
“You’re not an everyday starter,” Supak said. “But just to know that you’re always an option, you always have to stay in the game. You always have to know the counts and watch the pitchers.”
You can reach Morgan Prewitt on Twitter @kmprewitt_TDR.