Tigers take on stiff competition in NFCA Classic
Could the competition get any tougher this weekend at the NFCA Leadoff Classic in Columbus, Ga., for the LSU softball team?
Possibly.
Coming off last weekend’s UNLV Invitational in which they faced No. 1 UCLA and No. 7 Cal, the No. 5 Tiger softball team will venture on the road again for a tournament that includes seven members of the Top 10.
Top 10 tourney participants include No. 2 Stanford, No. 4 Oklahoma, No. 5 LSU, No. 6 Washington, No. 8 Arizona St., No. 9 Nebraska and No. 10 Michigan.
Other tourney participants in the Top 25 include No. 11 Oregon St., No. 13 Fresno St., No. 14 Cal State Fullerton, No. 18 Alabama, No. 19 Notre Dame and No. 25 University of Massachusetts.
However, in their four-team pool, the Tigers will draw New Mexico and No. 9 Nebraska late this afternoon and return to play Illinois-Chicago Saturday morning at 9 a.m.
Girouard said compared to other years, this is a solid draw for the Tigers. She said she feels this is a great opportunity for her team.
“We definitely have a great pool,” Girouard said. “We’ve had much tougher draws in the past.”
But looming for the Tigers will be another showdown with Nebraska, who they beat 4-2 last weekend in Las Vegas. Girouard said Nebraska will have revenge as a motivation.
In that game, Nebraska blew a 2-0 lead and had the bases loaded with two outs in the last inning before being stopped.
“Obviously, Nebraska’s going to be out for some revenge, and I think they thought that was a game they could have won,” Girouard said. “If they get a hit [in the last inning] they are right back in the ballgame. They could have tied it or maybe won it. I think they have a lot of confidence facing us.”
The Tiger bats, a concern of Girouard’s last weekend, woke up against in-state foe Nicholls St. Wednesday night. The Tigers pounded out 13 hits and 12 runs.
Trena Peel leads the Tigers at the plate with a .459 average. Right behind her is first baseman Christy Connor with a .400 average. Connor has been very hot at the plate in her last six games, hitting .625 with two homers and 11 RBIs.
Connor said she feels the team is getting closer to the top of its game as the squad heads to Georgia.
“I think we are improving with every game,” Connor said. “Our bats in [the Nicholls St. Game] really came around. I think our hitting is what we are really lacking. The more time and the more opportunities we have, the more games we play, the better our hitting is going to be.”
Freshman first baseman and designated player Tessa Lynam expressed her confidence in the team’s ability to win the tournament this weekend.
“I don’t think [LSU has] done too well in the past there,” Lynam said. “But we’re going there to win it, and no one’s going to beat us.”
Girouard said we wants to see how her team will respond to the excellent competition. She said as far as competition goes, this will be the stiffest test before conference play opens March 9 against Florida.
“We challenge them,” Girouard said. “We talk about welcoming the pressure. This is the last big, big competition that we see before we go into the SEC so we want to take the utmost advantage of the weekend.”
Bracket play will commence later tomorrow, as well. The top team in each pool will be joined by two at-large to play for the Gold Championship. The remaining second place teams will be joined by four at-large teams and play for the Silver Championship. The remaining eight teams will play for the Bronze Championship.
Championship play will begin on Sunday.
Chris Gibson