Bayou Brew 4/13: It's The Climb

Good morning. This may seem like an interesting combo… But it looks like Kim Mulkey and Trace Adkins are besties! Check out the love he showed on the Today Show.

What's steeping in today's Brew?

🤸‍♀️ Gymnastics will compete in the NCAA Semifinals
⚾️ Baseball is back at home
🐯 And much, much more!

Get Hype. Waiting for 2:00pm to roll around for the NCAA Semifinals? Get ready with all of the hype videos you could ever ask for on LSU Gold. These are sure to give you goosebumps.

🔼 Chasing A Championship. LSU gymnastics will be competing in the NCAA Semifinals today at 2:00pm in Fort Worth, Texas. Chasing a championship in the Dallas-Fort Worth area? That sounds familiar! This will be the Tigers 32nd appearance in the championships. No. 6 LSU will be facing No. 3 Florida, No. 4 California, and No. 8 Denver today in session one. The Tigers will start on beam before heading to the floor, vault, and finishing on bars. The top two teams from each semifinal will advance to the championship on Saturday. The Tigers are looking to build on eight final championship appearances. You can catch all the action on ESPN2.

🔼 Back At “The Box.” Wow, it’s been a week since the last time we were able to say that! After a seven day hiatus from Alex Box Stadium, the No. 1 ranked Tigers are back and hosting No. 12 Kentucky for an SEC weekend series. LSU is coming off a two game win streak after taking games from South Carolina and Tulane.

This isn’t your average Kentucky team, these guys are 27-5 and 9-3 in conference play. But, they did give up two to an unranked Georgia squad last weekend. The Wildcats have the fifth-best batting average and fourth best ERA in the SEC. The Tigers remain at the top of the conference in batting average, and Dylan Crews still leads the country in the same category. This is set to be a great battle between two top-15 teams. Game one starts tonight at 6:00pm, but while you wait you should check out this SEC Network feature on Dylan Crews and the Tigers.

🔼 Teeing Off. Women’s golf is sitting tied for third with Mississippi State after day one of the SEC Championship. The team shot 4-over, scoring 292 in the first day of the tournament. Latana Stone is tied for second place individually after shooting 3-under in round one. Play resumes this morning at 8:00am.

🔼 Award Season. There must be something in the air because we have multiple Tigers bringing home awards this week! It’s a high-five list of ‘em, so let’s go down the list…

🏊‍♀️ Maggie MacNeil was named SEC Female Swimmer of the Year, becoming just the second in women’s program history. She won three NCAA titles in the 50-free throughout her career and she broke the U.S. Open, NCAA meet, and LSU school records.

🏊‍♂️ Coach Drew Livingston earned the 2023 SEC Women’s Diving Coach of the Year award after just one season at LSU. LSU has earned this honor in back-to-back seasons. Coach Livingston picked up an SEC title and runner-up at NCAA’s.

🏊‍♀️ 13 Tigers earned All-SEC honors with eight being First Team, two Second Team, and three All-Freshman.

🎽 Multiple track and field stars took home SEC weekly honors after their performances at the Lloyd Wills Invitational. Michaela Rose was named SEC Runner of the Week, Morgan Smalls earned SEC Field Athlete of the Week, and Matthew Sophia picked up SEC Freshman of the Week.

🥎 Georgia Clark snagged the SEC Co-Player of the Week honor after batting .429 with three hits, four runs scored, and three RBIs last weekend against Missouri.

🎾 Anastasiya Komar was named SEC Co-Player of the Week after earning her ninth ranked singles win. She is now ranked No. 17 in the ITA singles rankings.

🏐 Lara Boos and Ella Larkin were named CCSA Pair of the Week after helping the Tigers go 3-1 last weekend. The beach volleyball pair are taking the sand by storm.

Diving In. With Coach Livingston winning SEC Diving Coach of the Year, let’s reflect on our past.

Do you remember who led the LSU dive team before Coach Livingston?

Think you got it? Scroll to the bottom of this email for the answer. 

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Thursday 4/13

⛳️ Women’s Golf at SEC Championship (Stroke Play, Day 2) @ 8:00am CT

🤸‍♀️ Gymnastics at NCAA Semifinals @ 2:00pm CT | ESPN2

⚾️ Baseball vs. No. 12 Kentucky @ 6:00pm CT

🎽 Track & Field at Bryan Clay Invitational (Day 1) @ 8:45pm

Answer: Doug Shaffer

Coach Doug Shaffer was the dive head coach for 11 years, although he spent 20 total years at LSU.

Have a great Thursday, y'all.