BATON ROUGE — Back-to-Back home runs in the fourth and a third shot in the sixth were what the fifth-ranked Tigers needed to shutdown Southeastern Louisiana, 6-0, on Tuesday night in Tiger Park.
“It was a fun day in Tiger Park,” said head coach Yvette Girouard. “We had three balls clear the fence, and all three pitchers threw. But what makes me the most happy is that we had no errors on the scoreboard. Southeastern made every play tonight until the fourth inning when our balls found eyes. I think they played really well.”
LSU improves to 43-8 on the season, as Southeastern falls to 27-19.
Erin Johnson and Julie Wiese got things started for the Tigers with back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the fourth. Christy Connor reached first on a error by first baseman Kristi Menke, and Trena Peel followed with a single to left field to put pinch runner Sara Fitzgerald on second. Johnson stepped to the plate and sent the ball over the outer fence at Tiger Park to put LSU up 3-0. Wiese followed with her 10th home run of the season over the left field wall.
April Janzen hit the Tigers’ third home run of the game with a two-run blast over the left field wall. Janzen has three home runs for the season.
The Tiger bats had six hits off Lion pitchers Susan Hill and Erin Hymel. Hill gave up three hits, four runs and walked three. Hymel gave up three hits, two runs, walked one and struckout one.
Junior Britni Sneed broke the LSU single season strikeout record with seven strikeouts in three innings of work to bring her tally to 279 for the season. Sneed only allowed one hit and walked none.
Senior Ashley Lewis picked up the win after relieving Sneed in the fourth inning. Lewis runs her record to 15-3 on the season. In two innings of work, Lewis did not give up a hit, walked one and struck out one.
Freshman Sarah Meadors came into the ball game in the sixth inning to finish things off for the Tigers. Meadors worked two innings, allowing no hits and striking out one.
The Tigers face New Mexico State on Thursday in the last non-conference game of the season at 6 p.m. at Tiger Park. LSU returns to Southeastern Conference action on Saturday with an 11 a.m. doubleheader against Ole Miss.
The game time was moved up in hopes that LSU tailgaters would take in a softball game before heading over to the Spring Football game. Saturday will be Parents’ Day in Tiger Park, and the Tigers will honor five seniors before Sunday’s noon start.