Softball falls to Florida in SEC Tournament

LSU’s SEC Tournament run was short lived, as the Tigers dropped a 3-0 contest to Florida, pushing the Tigers’ overall losing streak to five games, the longest of the season, at the worst possible time of the year.

The Tiger bats were silenced by UF’s Kelly Barnhill who held the Tigers to just two base runners, a bunt single by Aliyah Andrews and a walk to Amanda Sanchez. LSU has scored just five runs in its last six games and has been shutout twice over that span.

Shelbi Sunseri was commendable in the circle, tossing seven innings, allowing just one earned run in the first inning, allowing four hits and walking five. The other two Florida runs were both unearned when Amanda Sanchez committed two 2nd inning errors.

Entering Thursday ranking No.10 in the polls, the loss likely eliminates the Tigers’ chances of securing a top-8 seed for the tournament, and with it, the right to host a Super Regional. More concerning however is the offense and the larger style of play, which is reverting back to 2018, when the offense struggled immensely, and even scoring a run or two was tough for that LSU team.

After the game Beth Torina said the team would use the extra days for practice and “go back to the drawing board,” which is not always the most comforting thing to hear at the start of postseason.

If there is a silver lining to loss is that this does allow some time for recovery, which given some of the inexperience on the team, might not be the worst idea. The Tigers are pretty much locked into hosting a Regional and will likely be heavy favorites against the other four teams that travel to Tiger Park.

Matchups and seeding for the tournament will be announced Sunday at 9 PM on ESPN 2.