The No. 4 LSU softball team clashed with in-state foe Louisiana Tech in Tiger Park on March 5 and came away with a 9-6 comeback victory. But the roles have reversed, as coach Beth Torina’s squad will travel to Ruston for a rematch today at 5 p.m.
Since the 9-6 win, the Tigers (23-3, 2-1 Southeastern Conference) defeated Tennessee Tech, swept Longwood in a midweek doubleheader and took the SEC opening series from No. 6 Alabama, 2-1, winning on Friday and Sunday. However, the Lady Techsters (15-5, 0-0 Conference USA) have not played a game since.
Poor weather conditions forced Louisiana Tech to postpone a midweek contest with Stephen F. Austin and cancelled the team’s C-USA opener with Bowling Green. So the 9-6 loss for the Lady Techsters will likely be fresh on their minds when LSU rolls into town.
“[Louisiana Tech] feeds off stuff like that,” said senior infielder Bianka Bell. “They are going to go at us hard. They always give us a good game, and we are definitely going to use what we did [against Alabama] as a spark plug for us.”
The Lady Techsters led the Tigers for a majority of the first matchup. But a five-run explosion in the sixth inning, highlighted by senior catcher Kellsi Kloss’ 3-RBI double, provided enough cushion for a dominant relief performance by sophomore pitcher Carley Hoover.
LSU is coming off a 16-game homestand, where they went 15-1. When the team takes the field on Tuesday, it will be the first time the team enters a ballpark as the visiting team.
The squad played a neutral-site tournament in the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic and faced three ranked teams in Cathedral, California. UCLA was the closest team, but its campus is 129 miles away.
The Tigers will face the challenge of playing a game with nearly everyone cheering against them. The crowd is familiar with the team and will want to motivate the Lady Techsters to get the win the Tigers virtually stole.
“We need to shut them down early,” Kloss said. “We aren’t going to have people in purple and gold yelling ‘Go Tigers;’ we’re going to have people yelling at us, hoping that we lose.”
The Techsters’ lineup will be looking to finish the job, after coming up just short in the first matchup. The team features solid hitters throughout, including seven with batting average higher than .300.
In the first matchup, Louisiana Tech took advantage of LSU defensive errors and strung together solid hits to build a 6-2 lead before the Tigers’ comeback.
“A big thing whenever we play Louisiana Tech is they are a very emotional team,” Kloss said. “If they get ahead they will keep rolling with that. We need to make sure that we score first, and we don’t let up and just know no amount of runs is really enough.”
Not only do the Tigers travel Tuesday, but they will also go on the road to College Station, Texas, for a weekend battle with Texas A&M.
The week will be difficult for LSU, but Torina is preparing her squad for the challenges ahead.
“It’s a really tough week,” she said. “Going on the road to La. Tech then on the road to Texas A&M. It’s a tough place to play a tough atmosphere there. They get good crowds and their fans are really into it, so it’ll be a tough week for us but hopefully we can play some good softball.”