The University of South Alabama softball team will travel to Baton Rouge, La., to compete in the Purple and Gold Challenge Friday-Sunday at Tiger Park.

The Jaguars will begin tournament play Friday at 2:30 p.m. when USA meets Campbell, followed by a 7:30 p.m. matchup against 16th-ranked LSU.

On Saturday the Jags will take on Syracuse at 11 a.m.

The schools will be seeded after round-robin play, with semifinal games scheduled to be played at 4 and 6:30 p.m. Saturday.  The two semifinal losers will face off in a 10 a.m. consolation game on Sunday, and the championship contest between the two semifinal winners is scheduled to start at 12:30 p.m.

South Alabama (7-6) enters the tournament after going 3-1 at the Georgia Softball Classic, with its only loss a 4-1 defeat to sixth-ranked UGA. Prior to the loss to the Bulldogs, USA had won four straight - its longest win streak of the season.

Senior pitcher Beth Pilgrim had one of her best weeks of the season last week. She went 19 innings in the circle, and allowed just four earned runs while striking out 26. Freshman pitcher Morgan Druhan got her first career win after throwing 6.1 innings in USA's 8-3 victory over Charleston Southern, giving up only three runs on seven hits while striking out a career-high 11.

Sophomore outfielder Haley Hopkins recorded her team-leading sixth home run at the tournament.  Her total currently ranks her fourth on the Jags' single-season record chart. Freshman second basemen Brittany Fowler went 8-for-19 at the plate last week and posted the first triple of her collegiate career against CSU.

"I would like to continue to build on what we have been doing well," said USA head coach Becky Clark. "We have had timely hitting and our pitching has improved. I would like to see us take another step forward in the circle and execute things that we have been working on offensively."

USA has never faced Campbell, which enters the tournament with a record of 2-7-1 after splitting its last two games with College of Charleston last weekend.  The Fighting Camels finished last season with a 38-16 record, winning the Atlantic Sun Conference.

USA is 0-2 all time against LSU, and has not faced the Tigers since 2008, when they defeated the Jags 1-0 and 7-0 in the Purple and Gold Challenge. LSU (13-4) is on an eight-game winning streak following its 5-1 victory over Jacksonville State last weekend at Tiger Park.

The Jags have also never faced Syracuse, which enters the weekend 3-7 after falling to No. 8 Stanford, 7-3, and defeating Cal State Fullerton, 4-1, last weekend at the Cathedral Classic. The Orange ended the 2009 season with a 30-21 record, finishing fourth in the Big East Conference.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com.  Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

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