When LSU third baseman and co-captain Julie Wiese looks at Kentucky, she doesn't see the Southeastern Conference's weakest link in softball.
Instead Wiese, a sophomore from Central High, expects to see the same Kentucky team that took two games from Mississippi State and pushed Alabama to the limit twice before losing both.
"We can't take anyone lightly in the Southeastern Conference," Wiese said. "No one's going to lay down for us. They put up quite a fight against Alabama and Mississippi State. And we're expecting they'll try to give us one also."
The next-to-last road SEC series of the season begins today for LSU (37-8, 17-3) with a 1 p.m. doubleheader against Kentucky (21-23, 3-12) in Lexington. The two teams conclude their three-game series at 1 p.m. with a single game on Sunday.
Despite Kentucky's subpar performance in league play, including a recent three-game sweep at the hands of South Carolina, Wiese's outlook seems to typify LSU's cautious outlook.
"We know we have to go and have a take-care-of-business attitude," said Wiese, who is batting .296 with two homers and 15 RBIs. "We're now in the driver's seat and we have to go and finish it out."
LSU puts itself in its desired position, atop the SEC's Western Division, with a 5-1 road showing against Arkansas and Alabama two weeks ago. Any loss would give the lead right back to No. 15 Alabama (38-13, 17-4), which visits Mississippi State (30-21, 10-10) today.
"We can't let our guard down, we have to be consistent," LSU coach Yvette Girouard said. "We've only got a one-game lead over Alabama. So there's not much room for error."
Kentucky features one of the SEC's best hitting teams with a .298 average. Junior second baseman Nikki Jones is the league top hitter with a .428 average. Senior third baseman Andy Eilerston, a .321 hitter, leads the club with seven homers and 34 RBIs.
The Wildcats are at the opposite end of the SEC's pitching and defensive categories, ranking next-to-last in earned run average (2.81) and last in fielding percentage (.939). Meghan Cooper (10-8, 2.39) is the Wildcats' pitching ace.
LSU ranks first in both of those categories. All-American pitchers Britni Sneed (20-5, 0.99) and Kristin Schmidt (13-3, 0.97) await Kentucky's offensive challenge. Sneed, who pitched her seventh career complete-game no-hitter against Southern Mississippi Thursday, needs 20 strikeouts to reach 1,200 and move into seventh on the NCAA's all-time career list.
Center fielder Trena Peel is one of two .300 hitters with a .370 average followed by right fielder Erin Johnson at .311. Peel also leads the team with 12 triples and 29 RBIs.
"We've got to concentrate on us from here on in," said Girouard, whose team swept Kentucky by a combined score of 25-2 a year ago and has never lost to the Wildcats in nine previous attempts. "We have to play Tiger softball and if we do that, we'll be OK. We have to be concerned with ourselves and not our opponent."
