LSU Softball and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Weekend

When is enough enough?

For better or worse, Scott Woodward’s fingerprints are all over this current iteration of LSU athletics.

Since being brought home to Louisiana in April of 2019, Woodward’s had to hire a head coach for LSU football, baseball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, and gymnastics on a technicality. In other words, Woodward’s hired a head coach for pretty much all of the major sports that LSU fans tend to follow.

There’s been one sport, however, that Woodward hasn’t meddled with too much so far since becoming LSU’s AD: Beth Torina and the softball program.

Torina’s team sort of flies under the radar in Baton Rouge. Her teams are always pretty good, but maybe not great; they’re always ranked and but for the COVID-shortened season in 2020 have made every single NCAA Tournament but one since 1998. Next to baseball, softball is probably LSU’s most consistent program on campus and there’s a whole lot of programs out there who would kill to have what Torina has built over the past 13 years.

This weekend, however, the spotlight is on Torina and her Tigers for all the wrong reasons, and it’s fair to wonder if Woodward will intervene. LSU, the No. 10 overall seed for the NCAA Tournament, was knocked out of tournament last night by none other than the in-state Lions of Southeastern. The Lions, who came into the Baton Rouge Region as the regionals’ No. 4 seed, not only eliminated LSU, but they went 2-0 against them. Southeastern beat LSU 4-3 Friday evening, and then walked off LSU 8-7 to advance to the regional final against Nebraska.

This isn’t the first time an in-state school has eliminated LSU, either. ULL knocked LSU out of the 2023 tournament and if you’ll recall, the Cajuns beat LSU twice in one day to advance to the Super Regional round. Being eliminated at home by a directional school is unforgivable, and Torina’s met that fate twice in a three year span.

LSU is 6-6 in postseason games since 2017. After appearing in six straight Super Regionals from 2015 through 2021—including three straight trips to the Women’s College World Series in ‘15, ‘16, and ‘17—LSU has now missed the Supers in three of the past four seasons.

The SEC sent a record 14 teams to the NCAA Tournament, and nine schools were hosting regionals. LSU’s the only one of those 14 teams to not make it to the regional final. That didn’t stop Torina from saying that the program “grew” this season.

Torina’s probably right. There’s bound to be all kinds of off the field, behind the scenes things that she saw to make her believe her program is growing. But you and I aren’t privy to whatever goings on those may be, we only get to see the stuff on the field and the fact of the matter is the program is at best stagnant and at worst declining.

The Tigers have had back-to-back 12-12 seasons in SEC play; that’s coming off the heels of three straight 13-11 SEC records between 2021 through 2023. Since LSU’s last trip to Oklahoma City in 2017 the Tigers have finished 5th, 3rd, 6th, 6th, 6th, 6th, and 9th in the SEC, and the league’s only gotten better now that Texas and Oklahoma are members.

Here’s the kicker though. If Scott Woodward has seen enough it’ll cost $1.3 million to buy out Torina. In fact, Woodward actually extended Torina through 2028 just last summer. Add in the cost to buy out the rest of Torina’s staff, and hire an entirely new head coach and staff, and maybe it doesn’t make financial sense for LSU to move on, especially considering softball isn’t a revenue generating sport.

If Torina is returning in 2026, she’ll have a really good foundation to build off of. Tori Edwards was named the SEC’s Freshman of the Year after batting .383 with a team-leading 18 homers and 73 RBI, and freshman pitcher Jayden Heavener showed she could be the ace of a WCWS staff with a 13-5 record, 2.75 ERA, and 152 strikeouts. LSU had nine position players start at least 37 games this season and—barring any transfer departures—ought to return seven, and they’ll bring back three pitchers; the Tigers also have the No. 1 high school class coming in per On3.

That said, how many times have we said “this year’s a make-or-break year for Beth Torina?” And how many times have we seen her teams get off to an unbelievable start in the pre-conference, only for them to faceplant and finish in the middle of the pack of the SEC?

From a pure program perspective, Beth Torina does everything right. She schedules tough, the RPI is always at or near the top-10, her team’s been a host site in 10 of the past 12 NCAA Tournaments and oh by the way, her player’s graduate. Has the program plateaued? Sure, but it’ll be a lot easier for LSU to slip from where they are than climb into the elite tier.

If Scott Woodward decides to move on from Beth Torina I think it’d be warranted; I also think people wouldn’t bat too much of an eye if he decided to keep her around. It’s a tough decision and I’m glad I’m not the one having to make it.