By Tiger Rag News Service
BATON ROUGE, La. – The LSU softball team was selected as the No. 10 overall seed for the 2016 NCAA Softball Championships and will host a four-team regional featuring the Arizona State Sun Devils, LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds and McNeese State Cowgirls this Friday-Sunday, May 20-22 at Tiger Park in Baton Rouge.
LSU, winners of 15 of its final 18 games to close out the regular season and the SEC Tournament, is a host site for the second consecutive year and third time in last four seasons heading into the tournament. It’s the ninth time in program history that the Tigers have opened the national tournament at home in Baton Rouge, as last year LSU was also able to host an NCAA Super Regional as well for the first time in program history.
The Tigers are coming off of an amazing run at the 2016 SEC Softball Tournament last week, making it all the way to the finals for the first time since 2010, becoming the first seven seed in the event to make it to the title game since 2000. It put the team’s record at 45-15 overall on the year after finishing 13-11 in the SEC.
“I think my team played great last week and played ourselves into a great spot,” head coach Beth Torina said. “I’m honored with the position we received and I think that we are going to be in good shape going into tournament play next weekend.”
Arizona State is returning to Baton Rouge for the second consecutive season as the Sun Devils were in last year’s regional, as ASU comes into this year’s event with a 30-25 overall record and 6-18 record in the Pac 12, finishing eighth in the league.
The Cowgirls will be a familiar foe for LSU, as the Southland Conference regular season and tournament champions will return to Tiger Park for a regional for the first time since 2010 and after the two teams played back in late April with the Tigers winning 5-2.
LIU Brooklyn, LSU’s regional opening opponent on Friday, won its 14th Northeast Conference title on Sunday, dropping the first of two games against Robert Morris 3-1 before holding on for a 3-2 win over the Colonials in the title-deciding game right after.
This will be the first-ever meeting between the Tigers and Blackbirds, as LSU is 6-9 against ASU but has won two of the last three meetings and is 40-7 against the Cowgirls all-time.
LSU season ticket holders looking to purchase tickets for next weekend’s regional have until 5 p.m. CT on Monday to make their purchases. Season ticket holders will then be able to pick up their tickets at Will Call or print them out at home on Wednesday. That same morning, all-session booklets will go on sale to the general public beginning at 8 a.m. CT at LSUtix.net or by calling (225) 578-2184 or 1-800-960-8587.
Television designations and times for the regional games will be announced in the coming days.
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