The LSU softball team will receive its “big prize” this weekend if it can win to hold off two teams still alive in the race for the regular season conference championship and the coveted No.1 seed in the Southeastern Conference tournament.
At 21-5, the No. 2 Tigers clinched the SEC West after defeating Auburn this past weekend. LSU hosts Florida this weekend, and will need one win in the three-game series to take the regular-season SEC title.
“We won nothing last year and we’ve won a few things already this year,” LSU coach Yvette Girouard said. “Obviously we want the big prize, but we have to take it one game at a time.”
LSU has senior pitcher Kristin Schmidt to thank largely for much of its success over the past three seasons. Schmidt enjoys her decision of leaving Notre Dame for the challenge that is competing in the SEC. As a freshman, Schmidt finished third in the nation with a 0.55 ERA with a 27-3 record and did not allow a single run in conference play.
“I think the SEC is definitely a tougher conference than the Big East,” Schmidt said. “We have a lot of strong hitters in the SEC.”
Now Schmidt is experiencing the best of both worlds, playing in big games and remaining dominant in the circle. Her heroics in last year’s SEC tournament earned her Tournament Most Valuable Player accolades despite her team finishing runner-up in the tournament. She broke school records for appearances, games started, complete games and innings pitched, and is in striking distance within a slew of other school records.
“I think she saw right away how much better the SEC was, and she knew she had to make adjustments,” Girouard said. “The coaches in this league are phenomenal.”
And thanks to phenomenal coaching, competition is looming in the SEC Tournament.
Weekly-improving Vols
SEC East leader No. 10 Tennessee will need help to win the regular-season crown. At 18-8 in the SEC, the Lady Volunteers will need The Tigers to lose all three games and Georgia to lose one in addition to winning its own last three regular-season games.
After inheriting a squad that went 14-56 in the conference between 2000-01, Ralph and Karen Weekly directed the Lady Vols to an equal amount of victories last season en route to the squad’s first appearance in the SEC Tournament since 1999.
“The SEC is extremely tough from top to bottom and our young players are looking forward to the assortment of challenges that await them,” Karen Weekly said. “One of the strongest assets of this team is the ability of most players to capably play two or more positions. This gives us a lot of flexibility in selecting a starting lineup. With most of the players being sound defensively, the key factor in selecting the lineup is offensive production. For our coaching staff, the challenge is to develop ‘servant-warrior’ and ‘team-first’ attitudes, where all of the players can contribute when needed with more concern for team, rather than individual success.”
Thanks to the versatility and talent of the Tennessee roster, the Weeklys have had a successful third campaign as co-head coaches. Despite its high potential seeding, inexperience within the ’04 Lady Vols may be cause for an early exit from the SEC tournament.
“This is the youngest team we have ever fielded in my 18 years of coaching,” Karen Weekly said. “We do not have any juniors and only four seniors, just two of whom have been an everyday starter. The success of this team will completely depend on the maturation process of the 16 freshmen and sophomores who will be counted upon to be a big part of the offense, defense and pitching staff.”
Bulldogs on a chase
Defending SEC Champion Georgia will need LSU to lose its last three games and to win its remaining three to win the SEC. The Bulldogs are looking over their shoulder at second in the conference, hoping not to slip to No. 3.
But coach Lu Harris-Champer said she is satisfied with Georgia’s progress thus far.
“I am so proud of what the team has done this year and what they’ve accomplished,” Harris-Champer said. “Considering where we’ve come from, I think now we are a force to be reckoned with and we will look to get better.”
Under Harris-Champer, the Bulldogs have gotten much better.
In 2002, Harris-Champer directed her third different program to the NCAA Tournament, won her 300th game in just her sixth year of coaching and helped lead Georgia to its first postseason wins in the program’s history.
An 18-8 conference record, a No. 9 national ranking and two All-Americans are evidence that the Bulldogs have arrived on the national scene and will be an SEC powerhouse for years to come.