STARKVILLE, Miss. — After dominating Mississippi State in a Wednesday night doubleheader, LSU had to work for just enough runs to allow the fifth-ranked Tigers to escape with a 2-1 decision over the Bulldogs Thursday afternoon at the Mississippi State softball stadium.
The win gives LSU a sweep of the SEC series for the fourth time in seven SEC series this season and gives the Tigers a two-game lead over second place Alabama. LSU is now 38-7 and 18-3 in the league, while Mississippi State falls to 26-21 and 13-8 in the league.
Britni Sneed went the distance for the Tigers, picking up her 18th consecutive victory to run her record to 24-4. She did give up her first run in 51 2/3 innings as LSU allowed a run for the first time in 25 2/3 innings.
The game was nothing like the Wednesday night doubleheader which LSU dominated, winning 8-0 and 5-0. The game was tied early on and both teams threatened, but were unable to put a big inning together.
The Tigers got what proved to be the winning run in the fifth inning as Dee Douglas led off with a walked and advanced to second when April Janzen singled. The crucial play came in the Stephanie Hastings at bat as a pass ball by catcher Blaire Brown allowed the runners to advance to second and third with no outs. Hastings would ground out to second base, allowing Douglas to score with the unearned run that would stand up for the win.
“We found a way to win,” said LSU Coach Yvette Girouard. “For the new coaches and the new people on the team, welcome to the SEC wars. It’s going to be a dogfight every time we come out.”
The Tigers got off to the early lead again as Douglas opened the game reaching first on an error by State third baseman Cheri Smith. Janzen sacrificed Douglas to second, she advanced to third on a ground out by Hastings and then scored on Christy Connor’s single to right field to give LSU the 1-0 lead.
The run-scoring hit was Connor’s third RBI of the series for LSU.
State tried to work on Sneed from the beginning as Kellie Wilkerson opened with a walk and stole second and third. But Sneed got the next three hitters, including two on strikeouts to get out of the jam.
But in the second, the Bulldogs finally got to Sneed as Lindsey Nelson and Anna Joyce Lott singled with one out. Jennifer Nelson grounded back to Sneed in the circle and she turned to try to get the lead runner at third and had to eat the ball as no Tiger was there to take the throw, loading the bases. State tied it on a Jennifer Jessup ground out, ending Sneed’s scoreless string of innings as well as LSU’s in tying the game at 1-1.
Sneed handled State well from there, allowing just three scratch singles and with a runner on first and one out in the bottom of the seventh, got one of the league’s top hitters, Kellie Wilkerson to ground back to the circle to the junior pitcher, starting a game-ending double play.
The Tigers, after leaving 18 men on base in the doubleheader, again left plenty of possible runs on the base paths, including three in the third inning and after having two batters hit by pitches in the sixth, both were left at second and third after LSU failed to hit a ball out of the infield. For the game, the Tigers left eight on the base paths.
“We left way too many people on base,” said Girouard. “We just got to continue to work hard and be ready for days like this.”
LSU is off for Easter weekend and will return to play Wednesday night in Lafayette against Louisiana-Lafayette as Coach Girouard returns to her home town for a 5:30 p.m. doubleheader.