BATON ROUGE, La. ? The South Alabama softball team will travel to Baton Rouge, La. to compete in the LSU Purple and Gold Challenge this weekend. All games will be played at Tiger Park, home of the LSU Tigers. Other participants include LSU, Penn State, Tulsa and Southern Miss.
The Jaguars have won four straight games which includes a 3-0 win over Southern Miss this past Wednesday night. USA (7-6, 0-0 SBC) only generated five hits and one earned run in the game but pitcher Beth Pilgrim (5-1) is made up for the lack of offensive productivity. Pilgrim continues to give the Jags a legitimate shot to win games every time she is in the circle.
The sophomore has been solid in her last 5 starts. Wednesday night, Pilgrim pitched all seven innings, gave up 1 hit and struck out nine Golden Eagle batters. The outing followed a weekend at The Hatter Invitational in which she went 2-0 and threw a no-hitter against Bethune-Cookman.
“Our goal this weekend is to keep the momentum rolling,” head coach Becky Clark said. “The kids have done a great job over the past four games; we have gotten great pitching, timely hitting and solid defense. I look for us to continue that trend this weekend.”
Penn State (3-3, 0-0 Big Ten) will be the first opponent for the Jags in the tournament on Friday morning at 11:15 a.m. The Nittany Lions are headed into the tournament on a three game winning streak. PSU dominated the Pirate Classic in Greenville, N.C., beating Appalachian State (8-0 (5)), Syracuse (8-0 (5)) and East Carolina (9-3). Ashley Esparza has posted a .357 batting average, hit three doubles and driving in five RBI’s. Esparza (2-2) has also started four games in the circle and has posted an impressive 1.69 ERA. Infielder Desi Giordano has seen five games of action and leads the team in batting average (.600), on-base percentage (.667), total bases (13), home runs (2) and RBI’s (6).
LSU (10-3, 0-0 SEC), boasting a No. 9 ranking in the country headed into the weekend, will be the night cap for the Jags Friday night at 6 p.m. Three of the last four games for the Tigers have been against highly ranked opponents and the Tigers have competed well, beating No. 23 Cal State Fullerton (3-2 (8)) and losing to No. 2 Northwestern (6-4) and No. 10 Arizona (7-4). LSU?s Shannon Stein has a .471 batting average and a .538 on-base percentage. Senior third baseman Tayl’r Hollis is batting .353 with four home runs and 16 RBI’s.
On the defensive side, 2007 First-Team All SEC pitcher Dani Hofer is 6-1 with a 1.31 ERA. Last season, Hofer made 33 appearances, including 26 starts and posted a 24-3 record.
LSU won the SEC tournament last season and made it all the way to the NCAA Super Regional before being bounced in two games by Arizona State.
The Jags will then turn its focus to Tulsa on Saturday morning at 9 a.m. Tulsa (6-7, 0-0 C-USA) hosted the Holiday Inn Select ? Tulsa Festival tournament last weekend and won three of its four games. The victories came against Valparaiso (8-5), Central Arkansas (3-0) and Eastern Illinois (8-0 (5)). In January, Tulsa was predicted to finish fourth in conference play by the Conference USA coaches. Senior Sara Dyer and sophomore Jackie Lawrence were also selected to preseason All-Conference USA Team. Dyer led the country last season with 25 doubles, and was named to the 2007 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America Team.
The Hurricane finished third in the league last season, with a 30-28 overall record and 13-10 during C-USA play, posted its sixth consecutive winning record. Last season also marked the fourth consecutive season TU had posted double-figures in league wins.
USA will then have a rematch with Southern Miss on Saturday night at 6 p.m. Southern Miss (9-7, 0-0 C-USA) is coming off four straight losses which includes the 3-0 loss to South Alabama on Wednesday night. That night, the Golden Eagles could only tally one hit off Jaguar starting pitcher Beth Pilgrim.
USM lost three of four games last weekend at the Louisiana Classic hosted by Louisiana-Lafayette of the Sun Belt Conference. Shortstop Kristin Chaney, third baseman Jennifer Fox, catcher Kristin Pilgrim and pitcher Lana Vaughn were named to the Louisiana Classic’s All-Tournament team.
Vaughn owns a record of 3-1 this season with three complete games and a 1.96 ERA. Vaughn is not the only USM pitcher that gives the Golden Eagles a solid chance to win ball games. Samantha Davis (2-3) is leading the team in innings (38.0), ERA (1.66) and strikeouts (26). The junior has also completed three games of her own.
South Alabama will be back home next Friday night at 6 p.m. The Jaguars will play host to the Venezuelan National Team at Jaguar Field.
