BATON ROUGE — LSU junior Emily Turner swept the Southeastern Conference and Louisiana Sports Writer’s Association Pitcher of the Week honors, it was announced by the organizations on Monday.
Turner went 2-0 in the circle for the Tigers, defeating No. 3 Alabama twice on the road, the highest-ranked team she has defeated in her career. She ended the Crimson Tide’s perfect record in Southeastern Conference play at 15-0 with her first win and gave them their second loss in consecutive days, becoming the first pitcher to beat them twice this season.
In addition, the Chula Vista, Calif., native held the 16th best scoring offense in the nation to its lowest run totals since being shutout by then No. 1 Arizona on March 18. In her first complete-game win, she allowed a solo home run to the second batter of the game and did not allow a base runner to reach third the remainder of the contest, with only two runners reaching scoring position in the game.
In her final complete-game win, she had a no-hitter broken up after three and a third innings with a solo home run. She allowed only three hits the entire game, the second fewest hits by Alabama in a game on the season, facing only four over the minimum in the contest. Holding a one-run lead going into the bottom of the seventh inning, she retired the final three Crimson Tide batters in order to end the game.
This is the first SEC Pitcher of the Week honor of the season for Turner and for the Tigers and the second SEC honor for LSU this season. Turner has now been named the Louisiana Pitcher of the Week for five consecutive weeks as the Tigers have earned all six of the weekly awards this season.