In the past few seasons, LSU fans could look over to the dugout of the softball team, and see the Tigers wearing costumes, performing skits and playing with numerous props.
Before the postseason, the NCAA shut down the use of props and “uniform alterations.”
However, that hasn’t stopped LSU from bringing the props out this season.
“This team is about representing this university” LSU softball coach Beth Torina said. “Nothing is calm about Louisiana. I think that’s our personality. We were on our heels, and we lost who we were a little bit so for them to go back to that ‘Can’t Beat Crazy’ Tigers, that team that enjoys the game. We call it a game, so let’s have fun.”
LSU has been up and down on the offensive side of the ball this season, but since the reemergence of the infamous dugout props, the team has hit more consistently than ever.
After being held to just three hits against then-ranked No. 10 Minnesota in the LSU Invitational, the Tigers took the opportunity to revive their rally items in the following game against Florida Atlantic.
“We had been playing, not timid,” freshman first baseman Sydney Springfield said. “We’re known to be crazy. Even when I was not here yet watching LSU on TV, they were crazy, every inning, every pitch, every second. So that’s just what we were told to do. Just be ourselves, be crazy.”
Springfield said it was Torina’s idea to bring back the props for that game.
While the rally items aren’t long-term establishment in the Tiger dugout, they served their purpose.
“We brought that back to remind ourselves who we have been and who we are,” senior catcher Sahvanna Jaquish said.
The props have not made another appearance since the FAU game, but the Tigers’ bats have been just as hot.
LSU has outscored its opponents 55-38 following the brief return of the rally items.
“They’re doing a good job,” Torina said. “They’re understanding they have to pull for each other, and there’s been a lot of different people getting some opportunities and they’ve been good about consistently pulling for each other.”
Even without their signature props, the energy in the dugout is kept alive by loud and “obnoxious” cheers and an assortment of drumming by senior second baseman Constance Quinn and freshman infielder Nicky Dawson
“We just make up our own little things,” Quinn said. “We try to make it to where we’re being told, ‘Hey you can’t do that.’ We follow that theme of ‘Can’t Beat Crazy.’ A lot of teams have said that about us, that we’re a crazy team. We’re loud, we’re obnoxious and I think that’s what makes us.”

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Nicholas Martino

LSU players watch the game from the dugout during the Tigers' 5-3 victory against Texas Tech on Sunday February 28, 2016 at Tiger Park.