EUNICE, La. – LSU Eunice Softball will open up the 2024 season on February 3 against Southern Arkansas University Tech as the Bengals get set for their fifth season under the direction of Meghan Collins.
 
LSU Eunice will enjoy the comforts of home this season as the Bengals are slated to play 30 games on the Cajun Prairie.  It's the most home games for LSUE under Meghan Collins and a high for the LSUE program since 2012. 
 
Instead of a road heavy start to the year with tournaments, LSUE will welcome Southern Arkansas University Tech (Feb. 3-4), Trinity Valley Community College (Feb. 9-10) and National Park College (Feb. 16-17) for four-game sets at home. 
 
The Bengals will again tackle some of the best teams in the nation as LSUE is set to have 11 games against preseason ranked NJCAA squads.
 
LSUE will have home-and-home series this year including Lamar State College, Kilgore College, Angelina College, San Jacinto College, Bossier Parish Community College and Baton Rouge Community College.  The Bengals will head out on the road to face Pearl River Community College on February 13, followed by another trip to Mississippi to face Jones College and Shelton State Community College on February 21. 
 
Northwest Florida State College (March 9), Galveston College (April 6), Tyler Junior College (April 13), Itawamba Community College (April 21) and Southwest Mississippi Community College (April 26) round out the road schedule for the Bengals.  LSUE will host Alvin Community College (March 3), Dillard University (March 27), and Louisiana Christian University (April 4) completes the home portion of the 2024 slate.
 
LSUE welcomes back four starters from last year including Katie Salling (Baton Rouge, LA, Parkview Baptist HS) who led the team in batting average (.404), home runs (8) and runs batted in (46) a season ago.  The Bengals will have an entirely new pitching staff with five different pitchers in the mix.
 
LSU Eunice enters the season ranked tenth in the preseason NJCAA rankings.