LSU softball started the season 6-5, its worst start since 1981. Since then, the team has gone 11-1, with two quality wins over ranked UL and two solid wins over underrated non-conference foes, Troy and Louisiana Tech.
On Sunday, LSU recorded 12 hits in a run-rule win over Tech, and freshman pitcher Raelin Chaffin struck out 12 Central Connecticut State batters in a 5-0 LSU win.
The Tigers start SEC play Friday with a three-game home series against No. 2 Alabama, followed by a home date with Southeastern on Tuesday.
Three takeaways from a 5-1 weekend for LSU:
The ‘future’ of the pitching staff
On Feb. 22, LSU coach Beth Torina said she was looking to add a fourth arm to her pitching rotation before SEC play. Ideally, she’d have three starters and one reliever, she said.
Between then and LSU’s second game Sunday, two pitchers — Ali Kilponen and Shelbi Sunseri — threw 77% of the Tigers’ innings. Sunday starter Shelby Wickersham pitched only 11 innings in the 11 games in between, including six shutout innings in the first game Sunday against Louisiana Tech.
With the departure of Maribeth Gorsuch and her 12% share of LSU’s innings pitched in 2021, it initially seemed Wickersham would shoulder more of a burden. Instead, Torina has relied more heavily on Kilponen and Sunseri, who have been exceptional in the circle so far. Both are on pace to set new career highs in innings pitched.
Chaffin started Sunday against Central Connecticut State. After allowing a line-drive single to right-center field on her first pitch, she settled in, allowing only two more hits in a complete game, shutout effort.
Torina seems content with the status quo, but Chaffin may have shown her something, just in time for SEC play. She called it one of the best starts by an LSU pitcher this year. Her development is crucial for both the present and future of the program — Kilponen and Sunseri are running out of eligibility.
Chaffin is from Bossier City. The Airline High School alumna played on the USA Softball junior national team. She was ranked the 14th-best player and the ninth-best pitcher in the 2021 recruiting class.
“She’s the future of the program,” Torina said. “We have a signing class that’s deep in pitching too, but she’s gonna be the veteran. She’s gonna be experienced. She’s done a lot of things in her short career. She’s without a doubt the future of the program, so it’s good to see her have a start like that.”
The need to dig deep
The top of LSU’s lineup is strong.
Danieca Coffey and Ciara Briggs are the first two out the dugout for the Tigers every game. The two leadoff hitters are adept slappers, skilled bunters and quick baserunners. Before Thursday, Briggs led the team in both batting average (.424) and on-base percentage (.493). In both categories, Coffey wasn’t far behind.
Following the two slappers are three power hitters: the All-American shortstop Taylor Pleasants, the clean-up first baseman Georgia Clark and the designated hitter Sunseri.
Pleasants was hitting .189 entering the weekend, still trying to climb out of an early-season slump. She had five hits in the six games. Clark is batting around .260, right around her 2021 average, and Sunseri is on pace to exceed her 2021 batting average.
But what about the back half of the lineup? How much offense has LSU generated outside of their top-five hitters?
Coffey, Briggs, Pleasants, Clark and Sunseri have recorded 56.7% of LSU’s at-bats, and they are responsible for 67.5% of the Tigers’ hits. Six batters have remained constant in plate appearances in the final five spots of the lineup: Ali Newland, Sydney Peterson, McKenzie Redoutey, Morgan Cummins, Savannah Stewart and Cait Calland.
Those six combined for only eight hits over the weekend. They’ve notched 30.4% of their team’s at-bats, but only 22.2% of LSU’s hits.
Newland leads the way with a .259 batting average and 27 hits in 104 at-bats. Over the weekend, she recorded three hits in 16 at-bats. Against Tech, she saved two runs with a spectacular diving grab in left field, and against Central Connecticut State, she hit a home run into right field.
Cummins’ two hits against Tech highlighted the group’s weekend. She smacked a double to right center and smashed a solo home run near the left field pole.
“A lot of it is due to matchups,” Torina said, “due to what people hit well, they’re in and out of the lineup down in that part.”
For example, some pitchers LSU faces struggle versus left handed hitters, Torina said. Then, the back half of the lineup will feature lefty hitters.
“We just have a really deep team,” she said. “We have the ability to match some things up.”
Prioritizing in-state games
Nearly 5,000 people flocked to Lamson Park in Lafayette and Tiger Park in Baton Rouge to watch LSU and UL, two nationally ranked teams, play softball.
LSU won both games of the weekend series, scoring a combined nine runs to UL’s two. It welcomed its largest crowd of the new season Saturday night in Tiger Park. Fans filled the outfield mound, and Ragin’ Cajun fans filled the third base bleachers.
“I think (UL) travels well. I think we do, too,” Torina said Saturday night. “I think it’s an incredible atmosphere for the sport of softball in the state of Louisiana. I thought it was great to get our kids in front of a crowd like this before next weekend with Alabama coming to town.”
After playing UL and Louisiana Tech, LSU will host Southeastern and Nicholls State, and play a home-and-home with McNeese State before the season ends. Torina said that she will keep trying to schedule in-state matchups; She called the games “valuable” and said they benefit both teams and the sport as a whole.
“I can’t say enough about how special it is for the state of Louisiana to have this support of the sports of softball that we had here tonight.”
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