The No. 4 LSU softball team garnered its biggest regular season wins in recent memory this past weekend, taking two of three games against then-No. 1 University of Tennessee.
While the series win against the Volunteers was satisfying, the Tigers said they still feel they have a chip on their shoulder and a lot of work left to do before this season can be considered a success.
“Our team slogan at the beginning of the year was ‘Unfinished Business,'” LSU coach Yvette Girouard said. “We have nothing but championships to win from here on [out]. Now we’re just focusing on finishing it.”
The “business” the Tigers did not finish in the 2006 season was advancing to their third Women’s College World Series appearance in school history. After beating Princeton University and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in the NCAA Regional round, LSU dropped two of three games to No. 1 ranked and eventual national champion University of Arizona.
Those final three games were played at Hillenbrand Stadium in Tucson, Ariz., and several LSU players feel hosting an NCAA Super Regional series this season in Baton Rouge will do nothing but boost the Tigers’ WCWS chances.
“I’d say if we sweep this weekend [at the University of Georgia] I think we’ll most definitely get a Super Regional [at Tiger Park],” senior pitcher and USA softball national player of the week Emily Turner said. “It’s great because we can sleep in our beds [and] we don’t have to do all that traveling. Just having a home environment and being comfortable with our field I think will definitely increase our chances of going to the College World Series.”
Sweeping the Bulldogs this weekend would also give LSU one of the championships Girouard highly covets. No. 4 LSU, No. 2 Tennessee and No. 1 University of Alabama all have 21-4 records in Southeastern Conference play, but the Tigers’ two victories against each team gives them the all-important tie breaker.
If LSU sweeps Georgia and the Volunteers and Crimson Tide do not sweep each other this weekend in their three-game series in Knoxville, the Tigers will secure an outright SEC title.
“The team needs to play with an edge,” Girouard said. “We’ve beaten both Alabama and Tennessee two out of three and yet they’re still ranked ahead of us. We’ve gotta get everybody’s attention by just winning this thing outright.”
Junior third baseman Tayl’r Hollis said she does not believe LSU will have a drop-off in their intensity level after such a high profile series against Tennessee.
“We’re going into [Georgia] to really make a statement,” Hollis said. “We’re gonna go in there and take it just as seriously as any other game and really make a statement to everyone that we deserve to be No. 4 in the nation.”
The SEC has slowly molded itself into one of NCAA softball’s power conferences. Both Tennessee and Alabama played in the WCWS in 2005 and 2006, and the Tigers have played on softball’s biggest stage twice since 2001.
The conference has three teams ranked in the top-four in the nation, with the University of Florida also receiving votes in the ESPN/USA Softball Top 25 poll.
Hollis said the stiff league competition prepares the Tigers for the non-conference, high-quality teams they may face on their road to Oklahoma City.
“We just played a three-time All-American [Tennessee pitcher Monica Abbott], and we beat her,” Hollis said. “[The SEC] definitely prepares us for those big games and certain situations, like the bottom of the seventh [inning] against Tennessee.”
In that inning, down 3-2 to the Tigers, the Volunteers had a runner on second with one out. Tigers’ sophomore pitcher Dani Hofer entered the game in relief of Turner and forced a ground out and pop out to end the game and give LSU the series.
Turner, who went 2-0 against Tennessee, said battling through the SEC schedule enhances LSU’s intimidation factor against national competition.
“We play against some of the best teams in the country so when we see even the best teams from other conferences, they don’t measure up,” she said.
—–Contact Tyler Batiste at [email protected]