The purple reign ended as Alabama overtook LSU on May 23, officially ending LSU softball’s 2026 campaign.
The Tigers accomplished a lot in their 2026 NCAA softball season. Though they started out slow, they gained momentum. This season, LSU softball showed a lot of growth, possibly setting up the 2027 team to go even farther.
The season came to an end as LSU took on the Alabama Crimson Tide in the NCAA Tuscaloosa Super Regional, after sweeping its way through the Baton Rouge Regional. But this is not where the story started. In February, LSU hosted its usual Tiger Classic Tournament.
The Bayou Bengals swept through opening weekend, topping NC State, Lamar, Illinois and Nevada, but the next weekend LSU traveled to Clearwater, Florida, for the Clearwater Invitational, and the result wasn’t as pretty. The Tigers would go 1-4 in the tournament and come back home with a loss from the Clearwater Invitational for the first time since 2022.
This hit was the first of many for LSU, but it clearly made the Tigers stronger. They began an uphill battle a few weeks later.
Conference play was as difficult as one could expect in the SEC, and LSU handled it with grace. Every loss was a learning experience, and the script of the season completely flipped as the Tigers hosted No. 5 in the country Oklahoma.
If the state of the NCAA transfer portal hasn’t shaken the game up enough, this series was enough to show the effects. Former two-time NFCA All-American at LSU, Sydney Berzon, donned crimson and cream for her senior campaign, and the Tigers took on national champion pitcher at Oklahoma, Paytn Monticelli, in her senior season as well.
However, the series wasn’t defined on the mound. It was defined in the batter’s box. Even though LSU lost the series to the Sooners, each of the games was hard-fought, and it showed in the series and in the season to follow.
“I think it’s Sunday in the SEC. You know it’s gonna be all bets off,” LSU head coach Beth Torina said to ESPN about her team’s ability to come back from a 4-0 setback. “You’ve got to throw everything you’ve got at them. You know it’s going to be a fight no matter who you’re playing. They call us the ‘Fighting Tigers,’ that’s what we came to do.”
LSU got hot after this series, leading to series wins versus Missouri and Arizona and even sweeps of Ole Miss and Auburn.
Entering the postseason, the Tigers dropped their first game in the SEC tournament, but that’s not completely unheard of for LSU because the focus is on the following weekend: the NCAA Tournament.
This is where the Tigers hosted their 17th NCAA Regional in school history. LSU would sweep its way into the NCAA Super Regional round, but met its match as it fell in two consecutive games in Tuscaloosa.
Torina said she looks forward to seeing how the returners grow into the 2027 season, and with only four graduating seniors, the likelihood is strong.
“This team grew a ton. They finished strong,” Torina said of her team after the season concluded. “We’d like to continue to play on, but we’ve got to keep growing and continue to find ways to do that.”
