McNeese softball takes on LSU
Published 7:02 pm Tuesday, April 3, 2018
During the Cowgirl’s and Cardinal’s Southland Conference game at Cowgirl Diamond in Lake Charles, La., Saturday, March 24, 2018. (Rick Hickman/Lake Charles American Press)
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The McNeese State softball team is expecting perhaps its biggest crowd of the season Tuesday when it hosts No. 13 LSU at 6 p.m. at Cowgirl Diamond.
The Cowgirls (24-12) will get their second shot at the Tigers (29-6) a month after dropping a 2-0 heartbreaker in Baton Rouge that ended in walk-off fashion.
“The crowd intensifies a little bit,” said McNeese head coach James Landreneau. “We’re going to have a good fanbase out here. They’re always going to bring their people, and our fanbase will come out to support.”
The Cowgirls enter the midweek bout after earning split series victory against Northwestern State, which entered the weekend atop the Southland Conference. As a result, they moved up to a tie for fourth place in the league with Southeastern Louisiana.
Landreneau said he looks forward to the challenge that a top program like LSU brings to the table.
“They’re a great team, and it’s going to be a great challenge for us,” Landreneau said. “To be able to get them to play at our place is always an exciting moment. But at the end of the day, we have to come out and play good softball. That’s the name of the game for us.”
The Cowgirls will have to find a way to get people on and around the bases against one of the best defensive teams in the country.
The Tigers have two of the top pitchers in the country in Carley Hoover (12-3, 1.02 ERA) and Allie Walljasper (10-3, 0.89 ERA), and they have a team ERA of 1.22, which ranks ninth in the nation.
“We have to find a mistake and don’t miss it,” Landreneau said. “Against those guys, you may get one or two mistakes in an at bat if you’re fortunate. We just have to make sure we’re ready for that pitch.”
McNeese enters the game with the winner of the last two Southland Conference Hitter of the Week honors, and it’s not the name Cowgirls fans have come to expect.
After getting spotty playing time last season due to injury, senior first baseman Morgan Catron has come into her own in 2018 as she is batting at a .350 clip with 10 home runs.
“Morgan’s doing a great job for us, and she’s been consistent for us to this point,” Landreneau said. “She’s not trying to do too much with the ball, really slowing the game down and taking it one pitch at a time. She’s been able to do it with the longball, she’s been able to do it with balls in the gap and she’s working both sides of the field well.”
That’s not to say senior and three-time Southland Conference Hitter of the Year Erika Piancastelli has shown any signs of slowing down. She enters the game batting .333 with a team-high 12 home runs and a .790 slugging percentage.
Justyce McClain continues to lead the Cowgirls with a .433 batting average and a .518 on-base percentage, usually batting from the leadoff spot.
The Cowgirls are led in the circle by Alexsandra Flores (12-5, 2.13) and Caroline Settle (6-5, 4.02).
Settle pitched 6 2/3 shutout innings in McNeese’s first meeting with LSU until giving up a game-winning home run to Tigers shortstop Amber Serrett.
“We had to do a really good job of moving on from that really quick,” Landreneau said. “We’re going to have those moments throughout the season, and we’re going to be on the positive and negative ends of those. The biggest thing is if we can grow from that and move on to the next game because the games don’t quit.”
LSU at McNeese, 6 p.m.
