BATON ROUGE — The 11th-ranked LSU softball team completed its fourth Southeastern Conference series sweep of the season with a 7-1 win over Mississippi State on Thursday evening at Tiger Park.
With the win, the Tigers improved to 44-7 overall and 17-4 in league play, moving a half game behind Alabama for the lead in the SEC Western Division. LSU also moved to two and a half games behind Georgia for the overall SEC lead. UGA plays the Crimson Tide this weekend in Tuscaloosa in a three-game conference series.
The Bulldogs dropped to 30-22 on the season and 4-16 in league play. Mississippi State has now lost 14 consecutive games and has not won a contest in the month of April. The Bulldogs are in jeopardy of not qualifying for the SEC Tournament in three weeks, currently tied for the last spot with South Carolina, which they hold the tiebreaker over.
“This was one of those teams that we said we needed to sweep and we’re getting it done,” said LSU head coach Yvette Girouard. “We divided the programs up as to what was realistic and who we thought on paper we should sweep and we are on track so far except for Georgia.”
As it did in the first two games, LSU jumped on Mississippi State in the first inning and never looked back. The Tigers improved to 40-0 when scoring first after putting up four runs in the bottom of the first inning, including home runs by Leslie Klein and Quinlan Duhon. LSU added three more runs in the bottom of the third inning.
The Bulldogs got their only run of the series on a pinch hit home run in the top of the fourth inning by Sammie Jo Bailey. She was the only Mississippi State player to reach third base in the entire series, as only eight Bulldogs were in scoring position in the three games combined.
“We talked about scoring in the first inning because we realize how important it is for us,” said Girouard. “We exploded out, and made a statement immediately. We couldn’t quite finish it, but we did get to play everybody. Emily (Turner) wasn’t as sharp as she has been, but she was still in total control except for one pitch.”
Klein went 2-for-3 with a home run, a stolen base, two RBIs and two runs scored, while Stephanie Hill was 2-for-2 with an RBI on a sacrifice fly, a double and a run scored. Duhon finished 1-for-3 with a homer, two RBIs and a run scored. Lauren Delahoussaye finished 1-for-3 with a double and an RBI.
“Quinlan absolutely had “at-em’s” disease yesterday,” said Girouard. “She hit everything at them and today she hit it where no one could catch it, so good for her. Klein continues to pound the ball. The one that I am really happy to see coming around is Stephanie Hill. She’s hitting that ball as hard as you can possibly hit it.”
Emily Turner started and earned the win to improve to 20-3 on the season. She allowed just one run on the solo home run, on two hits with a walk and five strikeouts in four innings. Megan Jolly came on in relief in the fifth to earn her first save of the season. She allowed three hits with two strikeouts in three innings.
In the bottom of the first, Lauren Castle drew a walk to open the inning. She moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Camille Harris. Castle then scored from second on a sacrifice fly to right field by Vanessa Soto. Klein then hit her sixth home run of the season as she drove a 1-1 pitch over the left center field fence.
A double to right field by Hill followed. It was the 15th double of the season for Hill, which moved her into a tie for 11th in single season doubles in school history. Duhon then drove a 2-1 pitch onto the batting cages beyond the left field fence to five LSU the 4-0 lead.
The Tigers came back and added three more in the third. Harris led off the inning with a walk. She moved to second on a wild pitch. Soto also drew a walk as Harris took third on a wild pitch. A single up the middle by Klein scored Harris from third as Soto advanced to third. Klein then stole second to put runners on second and third. A sacrifice fly to left field by Hill scored Soto from third. With two outs, Delahoussaye doubled down the left field line to score Klein from second to run the score to 7-0.
Mississippi State got its only run of the three-game series in the top of the fourth inning. With one out, Bailey knocked a 1-2 pitch over the left center field fence to cut the lead to 7-1. It was only the fourth home run allowed by Turner in 14 SEC games this season.
Ragan Blake started and took the loss for the Bulldogs to fall to 17-12 on the season. She allowed four runs on three hits with a walk in an inning of work. Sara Hickerson came on in relief and allowed three runs on three hits with four walks and two strikeouts in five innings.
LSU has the weekend off before traveling to Fayetteville for a mid-week SEC series at Arkansas. The Tigers will take on the Lady’Backs in a doubleheader on Tuesday beginning at 5 p.m. The series will conclude with a single game on Wednesday at 5 p.m.
“I was very proud of the team this week,” said Girouard. “I was kind of concerned because they knew they were getting some time off and I didn’t want them to look ahead. The team and the coaching staff are going to get some rest this weekend. It comes at a great time with the stretch that we are about to encounter.”
With two weeks remaining in the regular season, LSU will close out the regular season home schedule with a series against nationally ranked Florida next weekend before concluding the regular season at nationally ranked Tennessee. The SEC Tournament is in three weeks in Athens, Ga. This season, the tournament is going to a three-day single elimination format with the championship game played on Saturday, May 13.