The Southeastern Conference’s preseason all-conference softball teams were announced last Wednesday. For the first time in recent memory, LSU was not represented.
The preseason snub is just another sign of how loaded the SEC promises to be this season. The conference placed five teams in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association’s preseason top 25, including four in the top seven.
“This is a tremendous league when you look at the standings and preseason predictions,” said LSU coach Yvette Girouard. “The schedule is very heavy at the beginning. … We have to learn to live in the present real quick in this game.”
The Tigers bring up the rear of the SEC’s lofty preseason projections, opening the season at No. 19. The team had a productive fall season, which Girouard said helped develop her pitching staff. But with the season so close, the time for new technique is over.
“Now we need to know what our weapons are and go with it,” Girouard said. “The time for experimentation is over with.”
The weeks before the season begins are more for “putting it all together” than anything else, Girouard said.
“We’re trying to see who our lineup is,” she said. “For our hitters to see live pitching, for our pitchers to work with hitters. It’s just fine tuning everything now.”
LSU brings back the bulk of a roster that bowed out of last season’s NCAA regionals with a loss to Texas A&M. The Tigers boast eight juniors who arrived on campus when the new Tiger Park opened in 2009.
With such steep competition in the SEC, the duty rests on the upperclassmen to deliver.
“The entire junior class stepped up as leaders this year,” said sophomore pitcher Rachele Fico. “They lead by example. They’re outspoken when they need to be. It’s going to be a very big year for them.”
Fico enters her sophomore season after compiling a staggering 20-7 record and 1.15 ERA as a true freshman. The Tigers’ pitching staff also welcomes back junior Brittany Mack, who compiled a 9-3 record and a 1.59 ERA last season.
New to the staff this season is freshman Meghan Patterson, who joins the Tigers from Mount Carmel Academy after recording 98 victories and 1,220 strikeouts in her last two high school seasons.
“She holds her own,” Fico said. “She’s going to be a fresh addition to our pitching staff.”
In the batter’s box, LSU returns four of its top six batters from last season. Junior outfielder Ashley Langoni, a .288 hitter last season, said the Tigers’ preparation will be the key to their success.
“Coach [Girouard] has even said it herself — this is the best team she’s seen so far come out after the break and have good practices every day,” Langoni said. “We need to show that we can hang with the top teams.”
 
 
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Contact David Helman at [email protected]