BATON ROUGE — Julie Wiese nailed a pair of home runs as the No. 11-ranked LSU softball team shut out Southeastern Louisiana, 7-0, on Tuesday night at Tiger Park.
The Tigers (34-11) are now riding an eight-game winning streak heading into a single game at Southern Miss on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in Hattiesburg, Miss. LSU defeated the Lady Eagles 3-0 earlier this season in the Purple & Gold Challenge in Baton Rouge.
With the loss, Southeastern Louisiana dropped to 12-26 on the season and has now lost five straight games. The Lady Lions have never defeated LSU in four all-time meetings.
“I thought Tessa (Lynam) threw pretty well,” said LSU head coach Yvette Girouard. “We obviously wanted her to throw tonight and she did a good job. We hit the ball hard and we hit the ball well and with some power. We also played some good defense so I was happy with the performance.”
Wiese tied the school single-game record with a pair of home runs in the game. She nailed the first homer with two outs and no one on base in the bottom of the second. Her second round tripper game in the sixth with one out and no one on. She now leads the team with six home runs on the year. Wiese now ranks third in career home runs at LSU with 20, seven behind school record holder Tara Asbill.
“Julie (Wiese) had such a fabulous freshman year and then had a drop off her sophomore campaign,” Girouard said. “She started off so well this year and then kind of went through a little slump. Hopefully she is going to get hot for us at the right time.”
Tessa Lynam recorded her fourth complete-game shutout of the season to improve to 14-2 on the year. She scattered two hits and two walks while striking out five. In addition, she went 1-for-3 at the plate with a run batted in.
“Tessa (Lynam) got herself into a little jam a couple of times, but she threw well all night,” Girouard said. “Of course, when your team gives you all of those runs, you have the luxury of pitching with a whole lot more confidence, but she threw well.”
The Tigers got on the board in the first inning. Sara Fitzgerald singled up the middle to lead off the inning. She advanced to third on an error by the third baseman on a fielder’s choice by Lynam. A fielder’s choice by Leigh Ann Danos scored Fitzgerald from third for the 1-0 lead.
LSU added another run in the bottom of the second. With two outs, Wiese nailed her first home run of the game over the left field fence to extend the lead to 2-0 Tigers.
Two runs in the fourth gave LSU the 4-0 advantage. Danos led off with a walk. She advanced to second on a single through the right side by Christy Connor. A sacrifice bunt by Blair Smith moved Danos and Connor to second and third before a double by Alicia Owen scored both runs.
Fitzgerald led off the fifth with a double down the left field line. She scored on a single to left field by LaDonia Hughes, who advanced to second on the throw. On a single to right field by Lynam, Hughes scored from second for the 6-0 Tiger lead.
With one out in the sixth, Wiese lined a shot over the left centerfield fence to stretch the lead to 7-0. Her second home run of the game tied the LSU single-game record for home runs in a game. She also tied the record earlier in the year with a pair of home runs against Cal Poly.
The only two hits of the night for Southeastern Louisiana were recorded by Carrie Raleigh who reached on a single up the middle in the first inning and a bunt single in the third. For the game, only two Lady Lions reached second and no SLU reached third.
Emily Stelly took the loss for Southeastern Louisiana, allowing six runs, five earned, on six hits with a walk and a strikeout in four innings pitched. Michaela Roberts allowed one hit in one inning of relief, while Jennifer Brewer closed it out for the Lady Lions, allowing one run on two hits in an inning of work.