The LSU softball team learned its NCAA tournament fate on Sunday night.
The Tigers ultimately earned the No. 9 national seed and will host at Tiger Park in Baton Rouge for the regional round, which begins this Friday. However, coach Beth Torina’s squad will ultimately need some luck in order to host in the super regional round. If high seeds win out, LSU would head to Stanford for the super regional round.
Torina has been at LSU since 2012 and has reached the Women’s College World Series four times. However, the last was in 2017, and the Tigers have never captured a softball national title in program history.
With the NCAA tournament beginning this weekend, here’s how Torina and LSU’s last five trips to the postseason have gone.
Last season, the Tigers earned the No. 10 national seed and won their first two games to put themselves in the regional final. However, they lost two in a row to UL-Lafayette as they suffered their third consecutive regional exit.
LSU failed to secure a national seed in 2022 and was sent to the Tempe regional as an at-large. It never got to face ultimate regional champion Arizona State as it went two-and-done with losses to San Diego State and Cal State Fullerton.
After a 21-3 start in 2020 was squandered by the COVID-19 pandemic canceling the entire season, LSU returned to the tournament in 2021 and earned the No. 7 seed, which was the last time the Tigers earned a top-eight national seed. They won their first two in the regional round but needed two games to dispatch UL-Lafayette in the regional final. LSU hosted against Florida State in the super regional round but lost the first two games.
As the No. 10 national seed in 2019, LSU survived the Baton Rouge Regional, though it went to a decisive game against Texas Tech in the final. It advanced to the Minneapolis Super Regional to face Minnesota, where it dropped the first two games to the Golden Gophers.
After going 1-2 in the WCWS the prior season, Torina’s squad actually improved its national seeding in 2018 from No. 13 to No. 11. The Tigers won their first two games in the regional before once again facing the Ragin’ Cajuns in the final, where they needed two games to dispatch them. In the Tallahassee Super Regional, LSU lost two of three games to the Seminoles.