Fresh off a plane from Tuscaloosa, Patrick Murphy walked into the LSU Athletic Building on June 9, 2011 with a painted-on smile and a promise to bring LSU softball back to national prominence.
A year later, his dreams were realized with the Lady Tigers’ first berth in the Women’s College World Series since 2004.
Too bad he didn’t stick around to see it.
After Murphy and his assistant Alyson Habetz had a “change of heart” and returned to Alabama, Athletic Director Joe Alleva promised to find someone who – unlike Murphy – would “wear the purple and gold with pride.”
He found it in Beth Torina.
That’s right, Beth Torina – a name that would’ve challenged even the savviest of softball fans last year, and with credentials a far cry from those of the legend she replaced, Yvette Girouard.
Now a year later, no conversation about Southeastern Conference softball would be complete without mentioning the 33-year-old who vaulted herself into national acclaim by orchestrating a dazzling postseason run.
Plucked from the perceived bowels of collegiate softball at Florida International, Torina took this veteran Lady Tiger squad to heights no softball experts predicted.
It’s hard to think of an LSU coach who experienced this much postseason success in his or her first season. Football’s Les Miles 2005 squad got throttled in an SEC Championship game, and then he watched his team brawl with Miami (FL) after a dominant Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl victory. Baseball’s Paul Mainieri couldn’t even guide his maiden Tiger team to regional play in 2007.
Make no mistake, though, this past season didn’t come without its bumps in the road and numerous doubts from “average Joes” like me.
Torina and the Tigers faced a daunting schedule that included 11 ranked teams on its regular-season schedule, highlighted by back-to-back road series against fellow WCWS participants Alabama and Tennessee.
She fielded criticism for LSU’s seven one-run losses and an anemic offense that made the Tigers basketball team look prolific. Torina maintained confidence in her dynamic pitching duo even as the team limped into postseason play at the College Station Regional to face the same Texas A&M team that ended Yvette Girouard’s final season.
Three weeks and five wins later, Torina was on top of the college softball world after re-energizing a team that I wouldn’t have blamed for giving up after a disastrous end to the regular season.
Soft-spoken and low-key, Torina lets her accolades speak volumes.
A standout pitcher for Florida in the late ’90s, Torina amassed 60 wins in her career, including consecutive 20-win seasons and a 1998 SEC Championship.
That point isn’t just used to pad her resumé.
Take LSU’s super regional win over Missouri, for example. I’m convinced that Torina’s ability to mimic Missouri ace Chelsea Thomas’ tendencies in the circle during batting practice was a catalyst in her team’s triumph against their future SEC foe.
However, I believe one of Torina’s off-the-field endeavors far outweigh an impressive first year on the diamond.
Instituting a Teal Game to “strike out ovarian cancer,” a disease that struck her mother in November of 2010, brought awareness to an oft- forgotten illness and drew more fans out to Tiger Park.
It’s not all serious business with Torina, either, as the Lady Tigers are obviously having the time of their lives.
In the College Station regional, I remember seeing senior Heidi Pizer with a parking cone on her head, all in efforts to rally her team.
Or in the super regional, when another teammate tossed a large salad bowl on her head, all to ask for more rally magic. Between the salad bowl, the deafening chants and the ear-to-ear grins coming from the LSU dugout, it didn’t seem like the Lady Tigers were playing for their season.
It’s obvious Beth Torina accomplished much more than LSU’s first WCWS appearance since 2004. She won over a skeptical fanbase, brought LSU softball back to the limelight and adequately filled Girouard’s legendary shoes.
After Patrick Murphy backed out on June 12, Joe Alleva said his ideal coach would be one who wouldn’t “rock the boat.”
Sorry, Joe, Beth Torina rocked the boat.
Contact Chandler Rome at [email protected].