Of all the topics covered at LSU softball media day, perhaps the most exciting to coach Yvette Girouard was a change to the conference format.
Girouard’s No. 19 Tigers will no longer be subjected to marathon conference series and Southeastern Conference doubleheaders this spring.
The league instead opted for the same single-game format its baseball teams use for weekend series.
“We’re all ecstatic,” Girouard said. “Four different times we were out on the field for 11 hours. No other sport asks that of their players and their staff.”
It’s ironic Girouard is so excited about the SEC’s change in format. Before they can get to the more relaxed pace of three-day weekend series in March, the Tigers open their season with nine doubleheaders in the season’s first month.
Much of that can be attributed to early-season tournaments, but it doesn’t change the fact 18 of LSU’s first 24 games are part of a doubleheader. The Tigers don’t play in a Friday-Saturday-Sunday series until March 11.
The Tigers’ schedule is littered with elite teams, as the SEC boasts four teams in the preseason top 10. LSU plays nine games against 2010 College World Series teams — a challenge for its lineup, which slumped to a .271 team average last spring.
“We’ve made a ton of adjustments,” said associate head coach James DeFeo. “When we came in this fall, we made it a point to really, really focus on the offensive side of the game.”
While the Tigers’ bats try to find a groove, the heavy strain of games could hurt the team’s pitching staff — a thin unit, but one Girouard considers a strength.
The Tigers will be highlighted again by sophomore pitcher Rachele Fico, who returns after posting an SEC-best ERA of 1.15 in 2010.
“With the way they’ve changed the schedule, it really makes pitching rotations easier,” Fico said. “It gives us a little bit of time to recover and rest up.”
The Tigers’ starting staff will feature just three pitchers this year — Fico, junior Brittany Mack and freshman Meghan Patterson — something Girouard said could be helped by the slower-paced SEC format.
“Not as a deep a staff as we would like,” Girouard said. “But in our favor with SEC competition … is the single game formats.”
Another hot topic at media day was the future of hitting in softball. Girouard said as the sport has gravitated toward more and more home runs, the SEC will begin testing bats before conference games this year in an effort to find illegal bats.
“Seven out of the 11 bats tested at the College World Series were illegal,” Girouard said. “It’s a huge concern right now in our game. When you have a 4-foot-9 slapper that’s hitting the ball over the scoreboard, it’s not the hitting coach — it’s the equipment.”