Despite the sign saying there are zero games remaining in Tiger Park, LSU will host at least one more weekend of softball before moving into a new stadium next season.
The Tigers were awarded the No. 9 seed in this year’s NCAA tournament and will host a regional beginning Friday, it was announced Sunday night.
The team, fresh off a Southeastern Conference tournament semi-final loss Friday to Alabama, watched ESPNU’s selection show together on campus Sunday, and afterward coach Yvette Girouard commented on the draw the Tigers received.
“This was a very good draw compared to what happened to us in the last couple of years,” Girouard said.
This past season, LSU traveled to Palo Alto, Calif., to play in a regional hosted by Stanford, despite the Tigers winning the SEC tournament.
Girouard said she is happy to be able to play in front of LSU fans this time around in both the regionals and super regionals, which, if the seedings hold true to form, will be hosted by No.8-seed Houston.
“We get to stay home,” Girouard said. “And when we win this regional, it’s four hours down the road, so our fans can watch all of it instead of what’s happened in the past.”
But before the Tigers start making plans to take that four-hour trip west, Girouard said they “have to take care of business first in the first matchup.”
LSU’s first matchup will be Mississippi Valley State on Friday. East Carolina and UL-Lafayette, Girouard’s former team, will also play in the Baton Rouge Regional.
Girouard, who coached the Ragin’ Cajuns for 20 years, said the Tigers can expect UL-Lafayette to come at them with everything they have.
“For a true Ragin’ Cajun fan – if it was Tiddlywinks, they would sell it out,” she said. “I know this because I was one, and you live to beat LSU – bottom line – so that game is huge for the fans and the team in Lafayette.”
And if LSU and Houston both advance, Girouard will face the woman she said was probably the best player she ever coached, Houston coach Kyla Holas.
Holas, now in her eighth season at Houston, was inducted into the UL-Lafayette Athletics Hall of Fame in 1999.
Girouard said the Tigers’ high seed is interesting.
“It’s funny,” she said. “A lot people out there think we had a very down year for LSU Tigers softball. We finished third in the SEC, but we finished third to the people who are [No.] 1 and [No.] 3. This conference is just so tough.”
Florida and Alabama enter the postseason No. 1 and No. 3, respectively, and will host their own regionals this weekend.
No. 13-seed Tennessee will also host a regional. No. 15 Georgia, Arkansas, Mississippi State and Auburn will also participate in regional action.
—-Contact Jerit Roser at [email protected]