LSU softball’s most chaotic SEC rivalry is coming to Baton Rouge on Friday.
The Tigers host Alabama for Week 5 of conference play, but this time there’s something different.
During each SEC softball season, there are a few front runners, and then the rest of the teams fight to overcome .500.
Typically, Alabama softball is one of the front runners, but this season they have taken a backseat to a few other teams.
Most notably, the Crimson Tide is known for sweeping several series throughout SEC play, but are currently below the .500 mark in conference play entering Week 5. This opens a door for LSU and its fans for a solid rivalry weekend.
With how the 2025 Tigers team has looked so far, there is a possibility of a sweep for the first time since 2013.
That unprecedented outcome is part of a chaotic history between the Tigers and the Tide.
The 2008 series between LSU and Alabama was played with a Saturday doubleheader and a Sunday game. The chaotic part of this was that the doubleheader games were polar opposites.
In the first game, the Tigers pushed the Tide to their limits. The contest lasted 10 innings and ended with a three run walk-off home run from Charlotte Morgan to put Alabama on top 9-8.
Following that game, Alabama put up eight unanswered runs to mercy rule LSU and sweep the doubleheader.
In 2016, due to the chaotic Baton Rouge weather, there was a mid-game weather delay. Although just 31 minutes, the Tigers showed they knew bad weather. After play resumed, LSU hit a three-run home run to tie the game. But Alabama came back, outshooting the Bayou Bengals 10-3 by the end of the game.
The last time LSU softball took a series versus Alabama was in 2022 in a series that had a unpredictable string of events.
The three-day series got moved to a doubleheader on Saturday and a single game on Sunday. In the first inning of the doubleheader, two-way player Shelbi Sunseri hit a foul ball into her face while batting, warranting a hitting and a pitching change for the rest of the game.
This pitching change caused the Tigers to use all three of their ace pitchers in one game, and led to freshman Raelin Chaffin taking the circle for LSU in Game 2. In that game, she allowed one hit and one run in seven innings pitched. A freshman was one pitch from a no-hitter. And all this from a player who wasn’t considered a part of the ace staff LSU had at the time.
In 2024 there was no scheduled meeting for LSU and Alabama, but the SEC Tournament had other plans.
In what should have been a routine game in a single-elimination tournament, the Tigers and the Tide broke the record for longest game in tournament history. The game lasted 14 innings and ended with a walk-off single by Taylor Pleasants to put LSU over Alabama 3-2.
With the insane history of Tigers versus Tide and the numbers Alabama has put up so far this season, there is a possibility the 2025 series could be added to this list of wild games.
The first game of the 2025 series will begin at Tiger Park, April 4 at 6 p.m.
