Cowgirls seek to break LSU’s dominance in series
Published 5:00 am Tuesday, April 19, 2022
- McNeese’s Crislyne Moreno celebrates after hitting a grand slam on April 9 in a SLC game against Southeastern Louisiana. (Leighton Chamblee / Special to the American Press)
Southland Conference leading McNeese takes a break from conference play this week, but gets a big test tonight when it hosts nationally ranked LSU at 6 p.m. at Joe Miller Field.
The Cowgirls (26-16) have won 14 of their past 16 games and are coming off a series win at Northwestern State in a matchup of the conference leaders.
LSU (27-16) is ranked No. 21 in the country and is coming off a sweep of South Carolina. The Tigers have won five of their last six.
The teams will play again next week in Baton Rouge.
LSU has dominated the series in the past, winning 23 of the 26 games between the teams, including a 10-2 Tigers win in the opening game of the Baton Rouge regional in last season’s NCAA tournament.
LSU has won the last 10 games between the teams, with McNeese’s most recent win on April 9, 2014 by a 2-1 score.
McNeese’s two other wins in the series came in 2009 and 2010. The 2009 win is the only time McNeese has won at home in eight tries.
“It seems like they have some of their best performances on our field,” Cowgirls head coach James Landreneau said. “We’d like to see our team play to the best of their capability. We want to compete well and whatever happens after that, happens. We know that we will be facing an outstanding offensive lineup and pitching staff.
“As a competitor, whenever you have someone you know is a real good opponent, then your juices should get going a little. It’s nice to be able to play top people week in, week out.”
Jil Poullard leads the Cowgirls offense with a .378 batting average, 6 home runs and 33 RBI. Kendall Talley is hitting .339 and leads the team in runs with 35.
Tori Perrin has a team-high 15 stolen bases.
Shaelyn Sanders (6-2, 2.08 ERA) leads the Cowgirls pitching staff. Ashley Vallejo is 10-6 with a 2.42 ERA and is coming off a shutout win over Northwestern State. Whitney Tate (8-7, 3.39) has won her last six decisions.
The Tigers are led offensively by Danieca Clark (.389), Ciara Briggs (.371, 38 runs) and Shelby Sunseri (.275, 13 home runs). Ali Kilponen (14-4, 2.17 ERA) leads the Tiger pitching staff. Sunseri (6-6, 2.73) and Raelin Chaffin (5-2, 3.15) also feature in the LSU rotation.
