The LSU softball team will take the field for the first time this season Saturday to start its fall exhibition schedule, four months after a dramatic run to last season’s Women’s College World Series.
LSU coach Beth Torina said the fall schedule isn’t as much about the final scores as it is about gauging the progress of the team during the fall.
“It helps us in the fall to see where we’re at and it’s something to break up the monotony of just practicing for an entire semester,” Torina said. “We really enjoy the games and we learn a lot from them.”
The Tigers play host to Lamar and Belhaven on Saturday, Oct. 6, Northwestern State and LSU-Eunice on Oct. 7, and McNeese State for two games on Oct. 9. LSU will also play the National Pro Fastpitch team Oct. 19 at Tiger Park.
After graduating eight seniors from last season’s team — many of whom played a vital role in the Tigers’ postseason run — the fall schedule gives LSU’s freshmen and incoming transfers their first tastes of softball at Tiger Park.
“We learn a lot about the newcomers, especially,” Torina said. “It gives the returners to take the things they’re working on, the fundamental changes they’re trying to make and put them into live game speed and see if they can accomplish these changes with another pitcher and with another team out there.”
Among this season’s batch of newcomers is freshman iddle infielder Bianka Bell, who as a senior in high school, earned Gatorade Softball Player of the Year accolades for the state of Florida.
Bell said she’s excited to play her first games of collegiate softball and continue making the transition to playing against a higher caliber opponent.
“The pithing is a big difference [from high school],” Bell said. “We have an All-American pitching against us and I hadn’t seen that type of pitching, with all the spin and the movement and the speed.”
The All-American Bell is referring to is senior pitcher Rachele Fico, who notched a stingy 1.12 ERA last season — the third-best mark in the nation — on her way to a 20 win season.
For Fico, the best part of the fall schedule is reuniting with the Tigers’ fans, even if it’s just for a few games.
“We haven’t seen them since they saw us off to the World Series,” Fico said. “They’re like a second family to us and they make us feel so at home. It’s just such a big family atmosphere here.”
The first pitch of the fall schedule is set for 4:30 p.m. on Saturday at Tiger Park, when the Tigers play in-state opponent Lamar.
