For the first time in the young season, the LSU softball team will go into a game with a winning record.
The No. 25 Tigers (5-4) are riding back-to-back shutouts into their games Saturday against South Alabama and McNeese State.
LSU isn’t the only team coming into the weekend with some momentum, though.
South Alabama brings a three-game winning streak to Tiger Park on Saturday, and the Jaguars are armed with the Sun Belt Conference Preseason Pitcher of the Year, sophomore Hannah Campbell.
After a game against South Alabama, the Tigers will take on a McNeese State team that is receiving votes in one poll and has notched wins against Oregon State, Arizona State and Houston. The Cowgirls have won five straight games.
“We’re going to focus on South Alabama because they’re our first game,” said sophomore infielder Allison Falcon. “We’re going to prepare mostly for them, then focus on the rest.”
Freshman utility player Dylan Supak said wins against Utah State and Southeastern Louisiana in the Tigers’ last two games have inspired the team going into the weekend.
“We come in with a lot of momentum, especially beating Utah State,” she said. “Coming off of that, having strong practices, getting things accomplished in order to prepare for this weekend, we come highly motivated because we want to keep a positive effort.”
LSU notched two wins and two losses at last weekend’s Louisville Slugger Desert Classic in Las Vegas, beating Cal State Northridge, 11-0, and Utah State, 13-0, and falling to DePaul, 3-1, and No. 3 California, 14-3.
LSU coach Beth Torina said she’s focusing on improving the team instead of dwelling on the Tigers’ losses.
“The [California] score was a little bit one-sided, but they’ve done that to several teams this year,” she said. “We’ve continued to get better every time, and I think that’s all you can ask for at this time of the year.”
Torina said the DePaul game highlighted some of LSU’s problems.
The Tigers gave up three infield singles in the seventh inning, which led to the game-winning runs for the Blue Demons.
“We definitely worked on our defense a little more in the infield after the DePaul game,” she said. “That was a factor there in the seventh inning.”
Defense hasn’t been a consistent problem for LSU, though.
In each of the Tigers’ wins, they have shut out their opponents, but have yet to score more than three runs in a loss.
“We’ve shown signs of having defense, having offense and having our pitching at some point already in all the games that we’ve played,” Torina said. “The day when we can get it all together, I think that’s the day we’re looking for — that’s the day we become unstoppable.”
 
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Contact Albert Burford at [email protected]