LSU softball kicked off its first fall practice on Wednesday in preparation for the 2018 season.
“I’m so excited, especially for the last go around,” senior pitcher Allie Walljasper said. “I can’t believe it’s already my senior year. We have a great group of girls this year so everyone’s just all bought into the program and it’s really cool to see everyone. It’s going to be really exciting to see everyone on the field today.”
The Tigers are coming off their third straight Women’s College World Series appearance, but with graduations and transfers, coach Beth Torina has a lot of things to evaluate before the season starts in February.
 

Freshman and transfers to contribute and compete
Four freshman and two transfers add to the already deep competition at positions across the board.
“I think they will all be contributors,” Torina said. “Of course, some have bigger roles that others, you know. They’re all very talented, they’re all capable of doing a lot of things.”
After losing starters at catcher, second base and right field to graduation, the possibilities are endless.
Torina cited freshman Cristiona Caccamise as having the best opportunity to start behind the plate, with junior transfer Michaela Schlattman practicing there as well.
Freshman outfielder Taryn Antione will compete at LSU’s deepest position, as the Tigers return junior Elyse Thornhill, sophomore Claire Weinberger and sophomore Akiya Thymes. Thymes is returning from an injury that sidelined her during the end of last season.
Thornhill also adds to the competition at second base, along with transfer junior Becca Schulte and freshman Kara Goff.
“We have a lot of options and i couldn’t even begin to speculate who is going to earn what spot,” Torina said.
 

Pitching staff remains mostly the same
Veteran pitchers Walljasper and senior Carley Hoover will continue to anchor the LSU bullpen this season, while sophomore Maribeth Gorsuch will have a chance to step into a larger role with the transfer of junior Sydney Smith.
The only addition to LSU’s bullpen is freshman Shelbi Sunseri.
“We only have one newbie in the bullpen so it’s kind of cool to see her transform into the college style and just getting used to it,” Walljasper said. “She has three great people ahead of her to guide her and help her and she’s definitely been using that.”
Hoover is returning to the mound after a knee injury suffered at the end of last season. She is “slowly but surely” getting there, and Torina expects her to be 100 percent by the start of the season.
As for the weekend rotation, Torina believes that it is best to match the pitcher with the team instead of having a set rotation every week.
“I would imagine as we start the season, you know in tournament play, you would see everybody,” Torina said. “You know, they’ll all get opportunities to start games so, I would imagine everybody gets to start every weekend, the first few weeks out and we’ll decide from there.”
 

Offensive restructuring
LSU has been a team that has always relied on its powerful bats at the plate, and last season Torina made a point to add more speed to the lineup.
Torina hopes to continue that trend going forward, with small changes in how they approach the offense. Assistant coaches Howard Dobson and Lindsay Leftwich have added more individual attention and time management to an already strong offensive team.
“We’ll still try to be a well rounded offense,” Torina said. “We’ll still try to have a nice base of speed and power. I think we have a lot of kids that can do a lot of things in addition to people that were here on our bench last year that didn’t get many opportunities.”