HAMMOND – The Southeastern Louisiana softball team opens a four-game home stand on Wednesday, when it welcomes No. 21 LSU to North Oak Park for a 6 p.m. non-conference contest.
 
The host Lady Lions (8-28) and the visiting Tigers (29-10) will be meeting for the second time this season, as LSU defeated Southeastern, 7-0, back on Feb. 21 in Baton Rouge. Live stats for Wednesday's game will be available at www.LionSports.net and fans can also follow the action via Twitter at www.twitter.com/sluathletics.
 
Southeastern is coming off its best offensive performance of the season in Monday's 12-8 win at Southern. The Lady Lions collected a season-high 15 hits on the way to the victory over the host Lady Jaguars. Nine of Southeastern's hits went for extra bases, including a single-game school record seven doubles.
 
In the win, junior first baseman Ariell Van Hook was 3-for-4 with a home run, a double and three RBI for the Lady Lions. Junior designated player Katie Doyle, who finished 3-for-3 with three runs scored, and senior catcher Meghan Gomez, who contributed two doubles to Southeastern's record total, each drove in two runs for Southeastern. Eight of Southeastern's nine starters in the lineup had at least one RBI in the victory.
 
Southeastern comes into Wednesday's contest with a .237 team batting average. Sophomore second baseman Megan McCollum continues to lead the team with a .313 batting average. Van Hook (.290), junior centerfielder Michelle Duhe (.266) and Doyle (.250) are the other top hitters for average for the Lady Lions. Duhe leads the team with 33 hits, followed closely by McCollum's 31.
 
Gomez is the team's top power hitter with eight home runs and 21 RBI. Van Hook (4 HR, 10 RBI), sophomore shortstop Kayla Elswick (2 HR, 11 RBI), McCollum (12 RBI) and Nichols (10 RBI) also provide Southeastern with added pop. Duhe leads the team with 14 runs scored, followed by Van Hook and Gomez with 13 runs each.
 
Four Lady Lions share the doubles lead, as McCollum, Van Hook, senior outfielder Katie Matthews and senior third baseman Trish Bliss each have six doubles. Duhe leads the team with three triples. Van Hook's 18 walks, while senior third baseman Lauren Coniglio (15), Matthews (14), McCollum (10), Gomez (10) and Elswick (10) have also drawn double-digit free passes. Van Hook leads the team with a .416 on-base percentage, followed closely by McCollum (.395).
 
Southeastern has a 5.06 team earned run average thus far in 2012. Junior Kati Morse (2-4, 3.28 ERA), junior Kenna Terry (2-12, 4.81 ERA), senior Vicki Honeycutt (3-3, 5.09 ERA) and sophomore Jessie Browne (1-9, 7.26 ERA) have all seen action in the circle for the Lady Lions.
 
The Lady Lion pitching staff will face a Tiger lineup that is hitting .254 as a team. Senior outfielder Ashley Langoni leads the team with a .330 batting average, followed by senior infielder Juliana Santos (.326). Langoni paces LSU in nearly every offensive category, including home runs (six), RBI (26), runs (31), hits (31), doubles (eight) and walks (35).
 
The strength of the LSU team is a dominant one-two punch in the circle, as the Tigers have a miniscule 1.57 ERA as a team. Junior Rachele Fico (14-4, 0.81 ERA) and senior Brittany Mack (12-6, 2.30 ERA) have handled the majority of the work in the circle for LSU, while sophomore Meghan Patterson (3-0, 2.01 ERA) has been effective in limited work.
 
Southeastern is 1-16 all-time versus LSU. The Lady Lions' lone win over the Tigers was a 1-0 victory on April 25, 2007 in Hammond.
 
Following the midweek contest, Southeastern will host UTSA for a two-game Southland Conference series at North Oak Park. The series opens on Friday with a 6 p.m. contest and concludes with a 12 p.m. game on Saturday. Live stats for the series will be available at www.LionSports.net and fans can also follow the action via Twitter at www.twitter.com/sluathletics.