The LSU Softball team was riding a high as they opened up Regionals at home, routing Prairie View 12-2 on Friday and followed that up with a 4-0 win against the Ragin' Cajuns on Saturday. They came in to Sunday needing to win one and then move on. The first game of the day opened up with the Tigers taking a 4-3 lead in the 2nd inning. In the 3rd inning the Cajuns brought in Sam Landry at pitcher and she only allowed 1 hit the rest of the game and walked three . The Cajuns took the lead in the 3rd inning and never looked back.
Game 2 of the day started and it was win or go home and Freshman Sydney Berzon got off to a rough start and the Cajuns got off to a 6-0 lead in the 1st inning. Georgia Clark who was very quiet all weekend got a hold of one for a homerun in the 2nd inning and sparked hope in the Tigers. They built on that with a 6 run 3rd inning and added another run in the 4th to go ahead 8-6. The Cajuns got another run in the 5th to get within one. The Tigers entered the 9th inning needing 3 outs to advance to the Super Regional round. The Cajuns bats came alive, they stole a base, and took advantage of a passed ball on an intentional walk and took the lead and eventually won by the score of 8-9 and gave the LSU Softball team an early exit from the post season for the second year in a row.
After a first round loss in the SEC tournament fans were clamoring for the firing of Head Coach Beth Torina. Those cries grew louder after the way things ended today and fans took to social media to voice their displeasure. Can we really expect to see Beth Torina out at LSU?
Let's take a look at what she has done since 2015 to present . Torina led the LSU Tigers to 3 consecutive College World Series from 2015-2017. She followed that up with 2 consecutive Super Regional appearances in 2018-2019 seasons. COVID cut the 2020 season short and the Tigers were at 21-3 at the time the season ended. There was then another Super Regional appearance in 2021. The 2022 and 2023 seasons has disappointing finished with exits in the Regional round.
I know some are getting restless and want a change and this comes naturally alot of times when a coach has been somewhere as long as Torina has been at LSU. Does the leash get shorter? I do believe if she has one or two at the most early exits then she could be in danger. At this point with the way Torina is recruiting and her previous successes, I see no way Scott Woodward moves on from Torina.
She needs to go.