As the leaders of the Southeastern Conference, the No. 3 LSU softball team does not have the luxury to look past anyone on its schedule.
And this weekend will be no different as the Tigers head off to Oxford to face the bottom dwellers of the SEC — the Ole Miss Rebels — in a three-game series.
Senior co-captain Julie Wiese said if the Tigers want to be successful this weekend, they must look beyond the Rebels’ dismal 13-28 record.
“We have to go into it like we are playing the No. 1 team in the SEC or the No. 1 team in the nation,” Wiese said. “Because in a way they don’t have anything to lose and we have everything to lose. If we go out there and play half way and don’t really care, then we are throwing our future away.”
LSU (39-7, 16-4 SEC) enters the weekend series on a 12-game winning streak, while maintaining its overall lead in the SEC by half a game over the Georgia Bulldogs.
Second baseman and senior co-captain Sara Fitzgerald said the focus must remain on the task at hand this week — winning the SEC title.
“It is easier as an upper classman than as an underclassman because we know what is at stake,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s more than just Ole Miss, it’s winning the SEC again and getting another ring and staying ahead of Georgia. So coming from my perspective it’s pretty easy to stay focused because that is what I have my eyes set on — going out on top.”
Ole Miss (13-28, 6-12 SEC) is coming off a solid showing against Arkansas this week. The Rebels took 2-of-3 games from the Razorbacks.
In practice this week, the Tigers worked diligently on defending the push bunt, which is used a good bit by the Rebels’ offense, Fitzgerald said.
“Coach [Girouard] said offensively they try to push bunt a lot,” Fitzgerald said. “They don’t have too great of hitters so they just try to put the ball in play.”
Wiese said the push bunt is not hard to defend as long as the third and first basemen do not crash as hard as they would on normal bunts.
“To defend it, the corners have to not crash as hard as they would on a normal bunt because the batter will try to get the ball in that shortstop to second base spot,” Wiese said. “But I think we are well prepared for it.”
The only true offensive threat the Rebels possess is junior utility player DeDe Justice. Justice leads the team in runs (22), home runs (11), batting average (.295), RBIs (26) and slugging percentage (.648).
Justice’s 11 home runs account for the only 11 home runs the Rebels have hit this season, which is the second fewest amount of home runs by any team in the SEC.
LSU will rely heavily on the right arm of senior pitcher Kristin Schmidt this weekend to shut down Justice. Schmidt (23-4), who ranks second in the SEC in wins, has won her last seven games and leads the team in strikeouts (203) and innings pitched (180.1).
The three-game series kicks off Saturday night with a doubleheader beginning at 5 p.m. The series concludes Sunday with a single game at 1 p.m.