The Southeastern Conference coaches have picked the No. 22 LSU softball team to finish second in the SEC West — right where the Tigers finished last season.
Despite returning 2011 Third- Team All-American senior pitcher Brittany Mack, 2011 All-SEC First-Team senior outfielder Ashley Langoni and 2011 All-SEC Freshman Team sophomore outfielder Simone Heyward, the Tigers failed to place any players on the preseason All-SEC team.
Mack enters the 2012 season only 75 strikeouts shy of cracking the top five in LSU history, while Langoni is four home runs short of reaching the same plateau.
Heyward led the 2011 Tigers with a .294 batting average as well as 23 stolen bases.
“It’s kind of a slap in the face, but we’ve got to take it with a grain of salt and work from there and get better,” Langoni said. “It’s motivation to push our players that are coming up to want to be on that team next year.”
LSU coach Beth Torina said she doesn’t put too much stock in pre-season teams and awards.
“That’s just something based on what people predict,” she said. “Of course we want to have our players get as many awards as possible, but the ones we’re looking to get are at the end of the year.”
Four-time defending SEC West champion No. 3 Alabama was picked to finish in front of LSU in the division, while No. 2 Florida was picked to win the overall SEC title.
Langoni said the team uses the rankings as inspiration to start the season off strong.
“That just makes us want it even more,” she said. “It makes us want to work even harder to be at a higher standard, a higher ranking, than what they gave us.”
Sophomore infielder Ashleigh Kuhn said she doesn’t let Alabama’s recent reign over the SEC West bother her.
“‘Bama is a really good team, but we’re not thinking about ‘Bama,” she said. “We’re thinking about ourselves.”
Last season, LSU swept then-No.1 Alabama in dramatic fashion. The Tide came to Tiger Park and took the Tigers to a 14-inning game followed by a 10-inning thriller the next night. Both games finished in walk-off home runs for LSU, while the third game in the series was a 2-0 LSU shutout.
Torina said the significance of the rivalry between the two top-ranked SEC West teams can’t be denied.
“I think that’s always going to be a rivalry no matter what we do,” she said. “Alabama-LSU goes beyond the softball program. That’s always going to be there.”
 
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Contact Albert Burford at [email protected]