May 25
May 21, 2007Sheila Boudreaux
May 23, 2007
The LSU softball team tied the NCAA Regional and school record with five home runs, including a grand slam by MVP Rachel Mitchell, en route to beating Stanford, 11-5, to advance to the NCAA Super Regionals for the second straight season.
LSU (55-10) is ranked third in the national polls, but is the 10th seed in the softball version of the national championship. Stanford was seeded 16th and played host to the event in Palo Alto, Calif.
The Lady Tigers will now face seventh-seeded Arizona State in a best-of-3 series this weekend in Tempe, Ariz. The winner of that series goes to the College World Series. The first game is scheduled for Friday.
This past weekend, Rachel Mitchell earned regional Most Valuable Player honors after hitting three home runs in three consecutive at-bats starting with the game winner in the ninth inning against Fresno State on Saturday and concluding with a grand slam in the second inning against Stanford. She concluded the tournament 3-for-9 with a walk, two sacrifices, three home runs, three runs scored and six runs batted in.
In addition to Mitchell, Quinlan Duhon, Dani Hofer, Andrea Smith, Vanessa Soto and Emily Turner were named to the all-regional team. Duhon hit a pair of home runs, including the game winner against Cal State Northridge on Friday, while Smith and Soto led the team with a combined seven hits, two doubles, a home run and an RBI. Hofer (24-2) came in relief of Turner against Stanford and picked up the victory after not allowing a run for the final five innings and recording five strikeouts. Turner registered the other two wins in the tournament.
The game started with LSU jumping out to a 1-0 lead on Mitchell’s second home run of the regional. But Stanford plated three runs in the bottom of the first to take a two-run lead. The Lady Tigers put up four runs in the second on a grand slam by Mitchell, but Stanford tied the game with two runs in the bottom of the third. Klein’s two-run homer in the fourth gave LSU a lead it would never give up. The home run for Klein gave her 32 for her career, which is a school record.
BASEBALL TEAM GETS SWEPT BY NO. 1 VANDY
The LSU baseball team saw its season come to an end after getting swept by No. 1 Vanderbilt. The Tigers, who were hoping to get a win or two and get some help to qualify for the eight-team Southeastern Conference Tournament, fell 4-1 on Thursday and by identical scores of 6-2 on Saturday and Sunday.
With their win on Thursday, the Commodores won the SEC Championship and will be seeded first in the conference tourney, which begins on Wednesday. It will be the first time since 1984 (Skip Bertman’s first year as LSU coach) that LSU did not qualify for the SEC Tournament.
The Tigers finished the season 29-26-1 overall and 12-17-1 in the SEC with some impressive wins over ranked teams. And it seems for the second straight season that LSU will not make it to the postseason (last year was the first time that happened since 1985). Last season, Mississippi State did not qualify for the SEC tournament with only 12 league wins, but they were one of the 64 teams in the national tournament, which will be announced sometime Sunday night.
LSU won series against Arkansas (second in SEC), Mississippi State (fourth in SEC), Ole Miss (fifth in SEC) and Alabama (seventh in SEC) this season, but will probably be staying home after losing five of its last six league games.
“I think the fact that we were still alive for a bid to the tournament on the final day of the season says a lot about the way our kids competed this year. I feel like in a lot of ways we overachieved this season and I’m very proud of our players for the effort they gave throughout the year,” said first-year LSU coach Paul Mainieri.
The Tigers never led in the first two games and were held to only four hits in the initial contest of the series. In the final series game on Saturday, LSU jumped out to a 1-0 lead, but ended up tied after one complete inning of play. The Tigers also managed to tie the score in the top of the eighth, but Vandy came back to take the lead in the bottom of the inning.
LSU will lose four starters to graduation (catcher Will Davis, utility player Steven Waguespack, pitcher Clay Dirks and pitcher Jonathan Wilhite). In addition, infielder Chris Jackson, who signed a free agent deal with the Buffalo Bills, is expected to forgo his senior season in baseball.
MIKE V DIES
The reign of Mike V, LSU’s beloved mascot who died early Friday morning during surgery, will be remembered as one of the most glorious periods in the history of LSU athletics. Mike V moved into a new home on Aug. 27, 2005 and served as the official mascot of LSU Athletics from 1990 until his death Friday.
Mike V was admitted to the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine on Wednesday for a routine exam, said Dr. David Baker, Mike’s veterinarian.
Baker discovered a condition called idiopathic chylothorax. Emergency surgery was performed to remove 10 liters of fluid from around the tiger’s lungs. As a result of the anesthesia, Mike’s kidneys failed and he was placed on renal dialysis, which was unsuccessful.
The royal Bengal tiger was born on Oct. 18, 1989, and first moved into his home across from Tiger Stadium on April 30, 1990.
Mike actually attended his first sporting event on February 21, 1990, when he was introduced to a roaring crowd at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center for a men’s basketball game.† The Tigers beat Alabama that day, 75-69, in Shaquille O’Neal’s freshman year.
During his tenure, Mike V reigned over a football national championship, five baseball national championships and a remarkable 23 track and field championships.† He saw LSU sports teams win 37 Southeastern Conference titles from 1990 to 2007. Mike V succeeded Mike IV who served as LSU’s mascot from 1976-90.
Plans are under way to find a new tiger, possibly a cub or juvenile, Baker said.
“I’m not so concerned about getting a tiger quickly, but getting the right tiger,” said Baker, who noted Mike VI will be a male Bengal Tiger.
