BATON ROUGE — A career-best four RBI, including a three-run home run, by Lauren Delahoussaye, led the 11th-ranked LSU softball team to a Southeastern Conference series sweep of South Carolina, 8-0, in five innings on Sunday afternoon at Tiger Park.
With the win the Tigers improved to 35-5 overall and 10-2 in conference play, extending their winning streak to 10 games, sweeping their third series of the season. The Gamecocks fell to 22-17 on the year and 2-10 in league play, dropping their fifth consecutive game.
“This was a series that we felt coming in that we needed to sweep,” said LSU head coach Yvette Girouard. “We ear-marked certain series and we certainly thought on paper we were the better ball club. We challenged our team early on and we got the job done.
Delahoussaye accounted for half of LSU’s eight runs in the game. The senior launched her second home run on the season in the bottom of the first inning to give the Tigers a 6-0 lead. The three-run shot came with two outs and was the 14th of her career. In the bottom of the fifth, she knocked in a run on an RBI single to extend LSU’s lead to 7-0 before a sacrifice fly by Andrea Smith ended the game on a sacrifice fly.
“I thought we were just phenomenal in the first inning,” said Girouard of the six-run cushion the Tigers spotted themselves after one. “Parts of the game are really coming together for us right now.”
Emily Turner threw a two-hit shutout to improve to 14-2 on the season, winning her sixth consecutive start. After allowing a pair of hits with two outs in the top of the first, she retired the final 13 batters in order to end the game. The shutout was the 10th of the season for Turner, who dropped her earned run average to 0.48 for the year.
“I thought Emily did a fantastic job all weekend,” said Girouard. “She has become what she was at the end of the year last year. She is becoming the complete pitcher. Not only is she physically gifted, but she understands how to pitch now and not just throw.”
In the bottom of the first, Lauren Castle led off with an infield single for the Tigers. With Dee Dee Henderson running for Castle at first, Henderson stole second and moved to third on a throwing error by the catcher. A single through the left side by Camille Harris gave LSU the early lead. The Tigers are now 32-0 when scoring first this season.
On a sacrifice bunt attempt by Vanessa Soto, Harris advanced to third as Soto reached and moved to second on a throwing error by the pitcher. After a pitching change for South Carolina, Leslie Klein singled to left field and moved to second on the throw, allowing Harris to score and Soto to move to third. A sacrifice fly deep in the hole at shortstop by Stephanie Hill scored Soto to run the lead to 3-0.
A walk to Quinlan Duhon put runners on first and second. With two outs, Delahoussaye nailed a 1-2 pitch over the left field fence to extend the lead to 6-0 as LSU never looked back in the game.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, the Tigers would end the game early, their 14th run-rule win of the season. Fallon Fisher led off with a double to left field. Erika Sluss then reached on an error as Fisher moved to second. A sacrifice bunt by Shannon Stein put runners on second and third.
With one out, Delahoussaye recorded her fourth RBI of the game on a single to left field, scoring Fisher from third as Sluss moved to third and Delahoussaye advanced to second on the throw. A sacrifice fly in foul territory down the left field line by Smith scored Sluss to end the game.
Kate Pouliot started and took the loss for South Carolina, falling to 3-4 on the season. She allowed three runs, two earned, on two hits while facing three batters and failing to record an out. Christie Hamilton came on in relief in the first and allowed five runs, only one of which was earned, on six hits with a walk and two strikeouts in four and two-thirds innings to end the game.
LSU returns to action with a mid-week game at Southeastern Louisiana on Wednesday. The Tigers will travel to Hammond to face the Lady Lions at 6 p.m. LSU topped Southeastern in Baton Rouge, 6-0, earlier this season. Next weekend, the Tigers will return to SEC play against Auburn. The purple and gold will take on AU in a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 1 p.m. before closing out the series with a single game at 1 p.m. The final game of the series will be televised on Cox Sports Television in Baton Rouge on cable channel 37.