It took a little while for the LSU softball team to find out its postseason destiny Sunday evening.
Players and coaches gathered in the Lawton Room in the Football Operations Center, chatting loosely with each other until about five minutes before the NCAA selection show.
The show started at 9 p.m., and everybody in the room got quiet, eyes glued to the giant projector screen in the front of the room.
The team kept waiting … and waiting … and waiting.
After about 25 minutes of waiting, the team finally found what it was looking for.
LSU (32-16-1) will play Cal State Fullerton (29-19) on Friday in the first round of the Tempe Regional in the NCAA tournament. The game will be televised on ESPNU.
“[The wait] even makes it more anticipatory,” said LSU coach Yvette Girouard. “We know we’re in. We just want to figure out where we’re going and who we’re playing.”
The Tigers would face the winner of the Arizona State-San Diego State matchup if they advance to the second round. Arizona State is hosting the regional.
LSU would play the winner of the Norman Regional in Norman, Okla., should they advance to the super regional round.
The Tempe Regional was one of the last regional tournaments announced. It was made known about five minutes before the half-hour show was supposed to end, and only two more were announced after it.
Eight Southeastern Conference teams, as well as in-state rival Louisiana-Lafayette, learned their fates before LSU.
“It’s a big deal to be looking up there and seeing where you’re going or what you’re going to be doing,” said junior outfielder Kirsten Shortridge. “As it kept going, it just kept getting a little rougher and rougher. But we’re ready.”
It will be a new experience for many of the Tigers. Only nine of LSU’s 18 players have participated in the NCAA tournament before this season.
One of the Tigers with experience, senior pitcher Dani Hofer, won’t be available because of a wrist injury that has plagued her since April 2008.
The team’s lack of postseason experience was apparent to Girouard not too long before the selection show.
“We have so many new, young people. We have to explain everything to them,” Girouard said. “They don’t know what an RPI means. They didn’t know what a bid was. They don’t know how regionals or super regionals work. I had to explain that to them yesterday.”
Shortridge is also familiar with the postseason, but her experience hasn’t been with LSU – she played for Baylor in 2007 when it made the Women’s College World Series.
“That’s every dream you dream as a little girl to get [to the College World Series],” Shortridge said. “Playing on that field was the most amazing feeling that I’ve ever experienced in softball.”
Shortridge, a first-team All-SEC selection this season, was a young player during Baylor’s 2007 WCWS run, winning the Big 12 Freshman of the Year that season.
She said the young LSU team won’t use its youth as an excuse for what happens this postseason.
“We’re in solid motion to just go,” Shortridge said. “This team is just good about going and fighting through everything.”
The team will most likely leave for Tempe on Wednesday, but travel plans haven’t been solidified yet, according to Matt Dunaway, LSU associate sports information director.
Girouard hasn’t even given thought to who will start in the circle for the Tigers on Friday.
“We’ve got to figure out how we’re getting there and get some scouting reports first,” Girouard said with a laugh.
LSU had some hopes of hosting a regional after hosting one last season and opening a brand-new stadium this season.
Girouard wasn’t as surprised LSU won’t host the regional after a first-round SEC tournament loss, but her team’s travel destination threw her off guard.
“I thought maybe we’d host, then I thought it was Oklahoma or UCLA, but I never thought Arizona State,” she said.
 
—-Contact Robert Stewart at [email protected]