A new season will begin for the LSU softball team.

The Tigers (45-15, 13-11 Southeastern Conference) will host a regional, facing-off against Long Island University at Brooklyn on Friday, in Tiger Park. McNeese St. and Arizona St. will play each other in the other matchup of the Baton Rouge Regional.

All of the LSU seniors have been to the Women’s College World Series, including senior catcher Kellsi Kloss, who said they know they need to do to reach Oklahoma.

“We all know exactly what it takes to get to the world series,” Kloss said. “We know the adversity you can through in the postseason, we don’t same spot again, where we faced a little bit of adversity. We want to just come right out of the gate and make a statement. That’s going to be our goal.”

The Tigers roll into the tournament with wins in 16 of their last 19 games and want to carry that momentum in the postseason, beginning with LIU.

“I think our team is really confident right now,” said LSU coach Beth Torina. “I think they’re play good softball. They’re playing hard, they’re playing mentally tough, I think we’re in good shape.”

The Blackbirds (30-25) were the Northeast Conference champions and were 0-4 against ranked opponents.  While LSU might not know too much about LIU, Arizona St. (30-24) and McNeese St. (42-14) are two teams the Tigers are very familiar with.

LSU beat the Cowgirls 5-2 on April 26 and the Sun Devils fell to the Tigers in last year’s regional.
“I kind of had a small feeling that would be in our regional,” Kloss said. “They’re [Arizona State] a great team. They’re really well coached. We can’t look past them at all.”
Game times for both games have yet to be announced.