LSU softball head coach Beth Torina has had some exceptional teams of the past, but it seems that they have always had more defined strengths and weaknesses.
Despite leading the Tigers to four Women’s College World Series appearances, there hasn’t been an LSU team make it back to Oklahoma City since 2017. There seems to be a trend of one extreme Achilles heel for Torina’s teams.
The teams of the Torina era seem to be better at one side of the ball than the other.
LSU softball has always been known for its dominant pitching, and the weaknesses that have been covered by dominant pitching has created a vicious cycle of defensive or hitting weakness.
In an ESPN broadcast of a 2016 Women’s College World Series elimination game against Alabama, the announcers said that second baseman Constance Quinn had defensive struggles throughout her career, and that she was pulled during the 2015 season because of her defensive struggles.
This theme was big for the 2016 Tigers, getting themselves into hot water they would have to hit themselves out of, but in the era of Carley Hoover and Allie Walljasper, they were able to make it work. The sheer dominance of the duo was enough to allow a few runs to solve LSU’s problems.
When Hoover and Walljasper graduated, the pitching dominance continued. The staff was young, but they got the job done for most part when the defense showed they were used to the astounding pitching duo.
In a game versus Florida in 2019, freshman Shelby Wickersham stepped up big in the circle for the Tigers, getting the win after Amanda Sanchez hit a walk-off double.
When the defense behind the Hoover and Walljasper era graduated, the recruits had an entirely new set of strengths.
The cycle continued with the freshman class of 2020 and 2021. Big defensive names came onto the scene in these years: Danieca Coffey, Ciara Briggs, Taylor Pleasants, Raeleen Gutierrez and Ali Newland. Defense was the name of the game when these athletes were on the field.
Despite having incredible power in lineups featuring big bats like Pleasants, Newland, Gutierrez, Georgia Clark and Shelbi Sunseri, there were several games the Tigers were detrimentally silenced.
The teams of 2020-2024 were played defensively with the 2020 and 2021 freshman class with the pickup of Karli Petty at second base from 2023 and 2024.
These teams could get it done with the bats, but were significantly better defensively than they were offensively. They say hitting is contagious, and that was extremely true with these Tigers.
In 2023, the Tigers were silenced on their own field versus University of Louisiana at Lafayette in the regional round of the postseason. LSU went down six runs in the first inning, but rallied back in the third to take the lead. ULL came back in the late innings of the game to regain a one run lead, and LSU was silenced to end their season on their own field.
Immediately in the 2024 season, this same team, minus pitcher Ali Kilponen, started the season with a 24-0 record.
Despite being able to get the job done consistently, there were still times of tremendous silence that came back to bite the Tigers team.
There is no secret the 2025 LSU softball team is different from the ones prior, and this team could make the cycle continue, or they could break it all together.
Torina’s approach with this lineup seems to make sure there is no Achilles’ heel in their gameplay for this young team.
In the ten games the Tigers have played in 2025, they have won all of them, and a big part of that is the diversity throughout the lineup. Every player has the ability to hit for power or play small ball when needed.
Against Virginia Tech on Sunday, clean-up batter Tori Edwards hits an infield single. In that same game, three-hole Maci Bergeron hit a home run. LSU won 7-4.
Not only is this team getting it done on the plate, they’ve been extremely solid defensively as well. Through ten games, they’ve only committed four errors, while outscoring their opponents 72-9.
While it is still early in the 2025 softball season, the young Tigers team appears to be a more well rounded team than those of the past.
Torina said that their goal with this team is to make them as tough as possible, and it could be awareness of the ways teams have fallen short in the past. Maybe this new approach and next era of LSU softball will break the cycle of the century.
