LSU softball is looking to regroup before facing three of the best SEC teams to end the season, after being swept by Texas A&M for their second series loss.
This young Tigers team hasn’t struggled with much adversity this season. Entering Week 10 of the polls, LSU had only suffered five losses on the season, but the Aggies turned on its head.
LSU dropped its first game to Cal State Fullerton and hadn’t taken another loss until the second week of SEC play. The Tigers fell in Game 3 to Georgia and the latter two games versus South Carolina to take their first series loss. Alabama topped the Tigers to avoid a sweep, and then LSU went to College Station for their fifth week of conference play.
Texas in Austin
Fresh off of getting swept, the Bayou Bengals are heading to Austin to face No. 3 Texas, which is arguably their toughest challenge yet.
Oklahoma’s long reign of easily being the No. 1 seed has come to an end, and Texas has held the top spot for several weeks this season.
The Longhorns sport a .370 batting average as a team, with a veteran pitching staff to match. Leader of the staff in earned run average is junior Citlaly Gutierrez with a 1.43 ERA. She’s not the only Texas pitcher with nice stats to back her name.
The burnt orange returns Mac Morgan for the third consecutive season. Morgan has veteran experience, pitching for two different teams on the big stage in Oklahoma City. She went to the Women’s College World Series in 2022 with Arizona State before transferring to Texas in 2023 and competing against Oklahoma for the title in 2024.
The Longhorns have only lost four conference games, and two of those losses came to Tennessee in Week 5 of conference play.
The Texas-LSU matchup is going to be one you want to see with both of these stellar offenses coming off of upsetting weekends. Both teams will have a chip on their shoulder.
Florida in Baton Rouge
Following their series versus Texas, the Tigers are coming back home for their last weekend at home. Senior weekend will be played versus the Florida Gators.
The Gators are No. 7 in the polls for Week 11, and they have consistently held a top-10 spot this season for good reason.
The offense in the SEC is no joke, and Florida is no exception. As a team they have outscored opponents 362-134. Their electric offense is always led off by Kendra Falby, one of the best leadoff hitters in the nation.
Falby has had a monumental career, and this season is no exception. Through 46 games played, she has a .463 batting average, but offense isn’t her only success. Falby can also flash the leather with the best of them. She was a 2024 Rawlings Gold Glove winner.
The Gators pitching staff is also as electric as ever, returning Ava Brown and Kegan Rothrock, who’ve proven to be essential throughout the season.
Brown and Rothrock have combined for 144 innings this season, and neither pitchers ERA is over 2.60. This duo has been deadly through their careers and will continue to work in tandem.
Despite winning the series versus Ole Miss, the Gators dropped Game 3 for an upsetting loss, and before they take on LSU, they will face Alabama.
There could be a possibility LSU is facing another team with a chip on their shoulder.
The all-time series history is knotted at 38 games a piece for LSU and Florida.
Arkansas in Fayetteville
Arkansas softball has built a bit of a softball dynasty in the SEC the last few years. Head coach Courtney Diefel has turned Razorback softball into the SEC and national contender they are today.
The first time Arkansas hosted the SEC tournament, it was a home-field upset. In the opening round of the SEC tournament, the Razorbacks were eliminated in a 9-0 loss to Alabama. After that, Arkansas was the victors of the SEC regular season and SEC tournament in 2022.
The 2025 Arkansas team is no slouch either. It’s sporting a .333 team batting average and has outscored its opponents by 195 runs so far this season. After losing infield slugger Hannah Gammill at the end of the 2024 season, the Razorbacks are still putting up great numbers in the box.
Lefty pitcher Robyn Harron leads the team in ERA and innings pitched, and by a large margin. The pitcher with the second most innings pitched is behind her by 33 innings. The pitcher with the second best ERA, with significant innings pitched, has a .47 point higher ERA than Harron.
Arkansas has a 10-8 record in SEC play, but it’s coming off of a positive weekend versus South Carolina, though it has its work cut out for them in Week 8 of SEC play. Week 7 is the Razorbacks’ bye week, but they will be thrown right back to the Wolves to take on current No. 1 Texas A&M before they take on LSU.
The next three weeks are going to be filled with LSU taking on teams with potential built up anger. The fire LSU has sported all season is going to be key in taking on these tough foes in the coming weeks.
SEC Tournament
Not only are the next three series essential to LSU’s record in SEC play, but they are going to be significant in its run in the SEC Tournament. The 2025 SEC Tournament is going to be held in Athens, Ga., where LSU defeated Georgia in Week 3 of conference play.
Despite the success on the field, the Tigers want to improve their SEC record to become a top four seed and receive a bye into the quarterfinals round. Due to the single-elimination format, getting a bye is huge to the outcome of the tournament.
In the past five seasons, LSU has gotten a single round bye with being a 5-8 seed throughout the seasons. Being a top four seed will give the Tigers one more game off and will allow them to propel past other teams that might stand in their way of their first SEC tournament title since 2007.
As per usual with head coach Beth Torina, LSU has played a tough schedule. Torina is known for getting LSU one of the top strength of schedules in the nation to boost its RPI. The next four weeks for the Tigers could boost their resume for the selection committee or make them look weaker than this team has proven to be.
Getting swept by Texas A&M in Week 6 of conference play needs to be a wakeup call to the Tigers. They have proven to have had a fire lit under them at each phase of adversity so far this season, so pushing through Texas will show their true colors as a team.
LSU will take on Texas Thursday at 4:30 p.m. to begin the final three weekends of SEC play.
