The belly of the beast lies ahead for the LSU softball team. The Tigers, riding a nation-best 23-game winning streak, have arguably the toughest portion of their schedule coming. No. 12 LSU (28-4, 8-0) travels to Lake Charles on Wednesday to face McNeese State (18-19, 6-9) before sinking its teeth into the meat of the Southeastern Conference schedule. “It’s been a very good run,” said LSU coach Yvette Girouard. “I didn’t realize it was that many at one point, and I didn’t realize it’s the nation’s longest streak right now.”The Tigers might need to be wary of the Cowgirls. Last year’s squad slogged into Cowgirl Diamond ranked No. 19 in the country. McNeese State won, 4-3. Girouard recalls the hullabaloo centered around that game. “I’ve been on the other side of the road where the dollars were very sparse,” Girouard said. “When I saw McNeese with the pregame aerial parachuters coming in with the game ball against us, I kind of figured this was going to be a big deal. That was probably all of their promotion money spent against LSU. I’ve never seen that in softball where a skydiver brings in the game ball.”Whatever promotion McNeese used worked. Girouard said she is fully aware of the threat McNeese poses, and the Tigers aren’t overlooking the Cowgirls with No. 6 Florida and No. 8 Alabama looming on the schedule. “I’m sure the crowd will be overflowing, break the record,” Girouard said. “Certainly we’ll point it out to them that we weren’t successful there last year and we want to turn that around. We’re not overlooking them at all. We know what happened last year, and we want to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”The Tigers will be healthier than last time around. Girouard’s crew enjoyed some rare time off this past weekend, which Girouard said has the squad “the healthiest we’ve been since the beginning of the season.”Sophomore outfielder Ashley Langoni and sophomore infielder Juliana Santos are slated to suit up Wednesday. Girouard revealed Tuesday that Langoni’s abdominal injury was nearly catastrophic. “This is the first time in about 10 games that Langoni will hopefully be in our lineup again,” Girouard said. “She was actually on the verge of a disastrous injury, and we caught it in time. She was on the verge of having a torn, what in layman’s terms, would be a six-pack muscle. It was only frayed.”Santos’ situation is a bit different. The Newman, Calif., native battles Crohn’s disease, an intestinal disease that can inhibit the healing process. Her toe surgery over the summer posed unforeseen problems in the rehabilitation process, causing her to miss more games than expected. Santos returned against Auburn but quickly dislocated a finger in the game. “Her body just doesn’t react the way most of ours do,” Girouard said. “So she had the foot problem. We had to rest her for a while. Hopefully she’s going to be back for us.”Statistically, the Tigers haven’t missed the pair too much. They haven’t stopped winning. “We don’t ever talk about it,” Girouard said. “We don’t even talk about rankings that much to them anymore. We used to do all of that. We don’t talk about rankings; we don’t talk about the streak. We’re playing very good ball.” –Contact Chris Branch at [email protected]