BATON ROUGE — Back-to-back home runs by Tara Asbill and Ashlee Ducote in the bottom of the seventh inning gave the seventh-ranked LSU softball team another miracle win Saturday as LSU scored four runs to beat Alabama, 6-5, in the first game of a softball doubleheader against Alabama at Tiger Park.
LSU’s lone senior, Sophia Mount, the winning pitcher in game one, came on to get the save in a 4-3 game two Tiger victory to give LSU a sweep of the four-game series.
The Tigers finish the regular season at 50-8 and 27-3 in winning their third consecutive SEC Western Division title and their first regular season overall SEC championship. The 27 wins is the most by any team in the three year history of league play.
LSU as the number one seed in the SEC Tournament will begin play Thursday in Columbus, Ga., at South Commons Stadium at 7 p.m. CST. The brackets for the tournament will be announced on Sunday night.
“This was very important,” said LSU Coach Glenn Moore. “I was realistically going into this weekend wanting the first win to solidify the SEC. From there I was thinking about the regional bid and possibly hosting one. We were hoping to get three of the four. We are very fortunate to get all four. It was a big weekend and will help us tremendously.”
The Tigers got on the board first when LSU shortstop Tara Asbill launched a blast over the left center field scoreboard in the fourth for a 1-0 lead.
But LSU looked out of it when Alabama put five runs on the board in game one to take a 5-1 lead. LSU got one back in the bottom of the fifth to cut it to 5-2 where it stood going to the bottom of the seventh.
After singles by Auburne Ziober and Dee Douglas with one out, Trena Peel hit into a fielder’s choice as Alabama elected to get Ziober going to third to leave runners on first and second with two out for Tara Asbill.
Facing Penny Cope, Asbill battled her through several foul balls before finally getting a pitch she liked and he took it over the left center boards for a three-run shot to tie the game.
Now the crowd of 777 was thinking extra innings. But Ashlee Ducote was thinking victory and she delighted the crowd by hitting a towering shot to left on the next at-bat to give the Tigers the win.
For Asbill, it was the first time in two years and two months that an LSU player had hit two home runs in a game and it gave her 10 for the season, one short of the 1997 record of former Tiger Tyra Perry. Mount ran her record to 4-1 for the season, striking out nine in the senior day performance.
Game two proved to be full of errors as the two teams combined for seven miscues, most in the first inning when LSU was able to take a 2-1 lead as Stephanie Hastings liner to Alabama shortstop Kelly Kretschman was misplayed allowing Asbill and Ducote to score.
The Tide tied it in the fifth as Christy Kyle’s double scored Kretschman from second with another unearned run. But LSU went ahead for good with solo runs in the fifth and sixth as Trena Peel’s ground out scored Taryn Perry from third and April Janzen’s squeeze bunt scored Ducote for a 4-2 lead.
Alabama tallied one in the seventh, but Mount came in to get the save for winning pitcher Julie Stashko (4-0).
“These kids beat a great team four times, what can you say,” said Moore. “Alabama is a lot like us. They are going to fight. They are good hitters and they won’t give up. Fortunately, we got the breaks and it worked out for us this weekend.”
Alabama finishes the season at 38-22 and 19-11 in the SEC. This marked the first time LSU has won an SEC series from Alabama in the three years of SEC softball.