BATON ROUGE — Trailing 5-2 in the fourth inning, the top-seeded LSU softball tied the game in the top of the sixth before finally scoring the game-winning run on a squeeze bunt in the 10th inning to take game three of the NCAA Regionals at Tiger Park on Saturday afternoon, 7-6.
In a game that featured a little bit of everything exciting about collegiate softball, the Tigers improved to 53-12 on the season and 2-0 in NCAA Regional play.
LSU advanced into the championship game on Sunday where the Tigers will need only one win to advance to Super Regionals next weekend.
“It was a hard fought game by two great teams,” said LSU associate head coach James DeFeo, who coached after the fifth inning when LSU head coach Yvette Girouard was ejected for arguing with the home plate umpire.
“I am just glad the Tigers came out on top. We fought through some adversity today through the whole game. The girls played pitch by pitch and we were fortunate to get it done at the end.”
The Ragin’ Cajuns (49-11) fell to 1-1 in regional play. ULL will now play the loser of the NC State-Princeton game on Saturday at 7 p.m. CT for the right to face LSU on Championship Sunday.
After rallying in the sixth, LSU had a chance to in the eighth after a solo home run by Leslie Klein gave the Tigers the 6-5 lead. But the Ragin’ Cajuns scored on a two-out pinch-hit single by Deserea Griffin to tie the game at 6-6.
With two outs in the top of the 10th and runners on first and third, LSU’s Stephanie Hill laid down a squeeze bunt that scored Leslie Klein for the game-winning run. It was the third base hit of the game for Hill. She who also recorded two RBI, including the first of the game on a solo home run in the second.
“This game was just going on and on and Stephanie came up with a huge hit earlier in the game,” said DeFeo about the calling the squeeze bunt from the third base coaching box.
“We just felt like we had to make something happen. We had talked about it (the bunt) before the inning and I just told them, ‘Guys we have to make something happen this inning,’ because I didn’t want to go to the 11th inning — because the scoreboard wasn’t big enough. We have worked really hard on that all week. We were focusing on executing runners and getting primetime hits in primetime situations.”
With the tying run at second in the bottom of the 10th after a fielding error by LSU shortstop Andrea Smith, pitcher Emily Turner got the final two batters of the game to pop out and ground out to end the game.
Turner (26-7) threw 186 pitches to earn the complete-game win. She allowed six runs — two of which were earned — on seven hits with three walks and 12 strikeouts. It marked her eighth double-figure strikeout performance of the season.
Louisiana-Lafayette took advantage of a Tigers error to score a pair of runs in the bottom half of the first inning. With two outs, Lacey Bertucci drew a walk. On a ground ball to Smith at shortstop by Ashley Evans, Smith threw the ball into the LSU dugout, allowing Bertucci to advance to third and Evans to take second.
After an intentional walk to Holly Tankersley loaded the bases, Tara Hamilton singled to left field, scoring Bertucci and Evans to take the 2-0 advantage on a pair of unearned runs. Codi Runyan grounded out to end the inning.
The Tigers wasted no time in tying it up. Hill led off the second inning with a towering home run over the left field fence that cleared the batting cages. Lauren Delahoussaye then reached on a walk. With Heidi Robin running for Delahoussaye, she moved to second on a wild pitch. With two outs, Camille Harris doubled to right field to score Robin to tie the game at 2-2.
The Ragin’ Cajuns used two more Tigers errors in the bottom half of the inning to retake the lead. Jessica Lemoine was hit by a pitch to start the inning. Karli Hubbard then reached on a throwing error by Smith, moving Lemoine to second. With one out, Hubbard and Lemoine moved to second and third on a wild pitch. A walk to Danyele Gomez loaded the bases.
Bertucci then singled through the left side scoring Lemoine from third. On a fielder’s choice to shortstop, Smith had an errant throw home that allowed both Hubbard and Gomez to score as ULL took a 5-2 lead.
In the top of the fifth, the Tigers got to within one by adding a pair of runs. Killian Roessner reached on fielding error to lead off the inning. With Shannon Stein running for Roessner, she moved to second on a base hit by Hill.
With one out, Smith was hit by a pitch, but was called back to the box by the home plate umpire and given a strike. Girouard came out to argue the call and was ejected from the game by John Kurant behind the plate.
With two outs, Quinlan Duhon came up with a timely hit, singling up the middle to score Stein from second. After Hill stole third, a wild pitch scored her from third to cut the Ragin’ Cajun lead to 5-4.
LSU tied it up in the top of the sixth inning. Harris led off the inning with a solo home run to center field. It marked her seventh homer of the year. The tied score remained until the eighth.
In the top of the eighth, Klein led off with a solo home run for the Tigers that gave LSU its first lead. It was Klein’s team-leading eighth homer of the year.
With one out in the bottom of the frame, ULL’s Tara Hamilton doubled down the left field line. With two outs and Kelsey Cammarata pinch running for Hamilton at second, pinch hitter Griffin hit a single to right field that was just deep enough for Cammarata to score under the tag for Roessner at the plate to tie it up.
After going down in order in the ninth for the first time in the game, LSU got things going again in the 10th. Camille Harris broke the school record with her 15th hit by pitch to lead off the inning. After Klein reached on a fielder’s choice that got Harris at second, Klein stole second. Vanessa Soto reached on a fielding error by the ULL shortstop Codi Runyan to put runners at first and second.
On a fielder’s choice by Roessner, Soto was out at second as Klein moved to third. With runners at the corners, DeFeo called for the squeeze bunt by Hill that as executed perfectly as Hill reached on the bunt single and Klein scored from third for what proved to be the game-winning run.
In the bottom half of the inning, the Ragin’ Cajuns had the tying run at second on an error with the winning run at the plate, but Turner retired the final two batters to end the game and preserve the one-run victory.
Ashley Kirchberg took the loss in relief to fall to 25-2 on the season. She came on with one out in the sixth inning and allowed two runs, one earned, on three hits with a walk and a strikeout in four and two-thirds innings. Krystal Lewallen started and allowed five runs, three earned, on 13 hits with two walks and six strikeouts in five and a third innings.
LSU improved to 11-3 all-time against the Ragin’ Cajuns, while Girouard moved to 4-1 against her former school. This marked the first meeting between the two schools since the Tigers topped ULL in the 2001 NCAA Regional championship game to advance to the Women’s College World Series for the first time.
2006 NCAA Baton Rouge Regional
Game 3: (1) LSU vs. (3) Louisiana-Lafayette
May 20, 2006
LSU QUOTES
Associate Head Coach James DeFeo
Opening statement…
“It was a hard fought game by two great teams I am just glad the Tigers came out on top. We fought through some adversity today through the whole game. The girls played pitch by pitch and we were fortunate to get it done at the end.”
On Stephanie Hill‘s bunt that sent in the winning run…
“This game was just going on and on and Stephanie came up with a huge hit earlier in the game. We just felt like we had to make something happen. We had talked about it (the bunt) before the inning and I just told them ‘guys we have to make something happen this inning’ because I didn’t want to go to the 11th inning because the scoreboard wasn’t big enough. We have worked really hard on that all week. We were focusing on executing runners and getting primetime hits in primetime situations.”
Pitcher Emily Turner
On her performance…
“Obviously I feel fatigued but it says a lot that my team still wanted me to have the ball after so many innings.”
On putting the first two innings behind her…
“Unfortunately there were some errors in the game. After the first two hits and five runs on me our team did a remarkable thing by coming back from a 5-2 deficit and I can’t even explain how proud of my team I am right now.”
First Baseman Stephanie Hill
On her bunt that sent in the winning run…
“Coach DeFeo said ‘I am thinking about a squeeze’ and coach O (Osterberg) said ‘that’s a great idea.’ I knew she was a riseball pitcher so I knew her first pitch would be a riseball I just wanted to get it down and after I hit it I turned to coach O to see what happened because there were a lot of Lafayette and LSU fans so I couldn’t tell I just saw a lot of excitement.”
2006 NCAA Baton Rouge Regional
Game 3: (1) LSU vs. (3) Louisiana-Lafayette
May 20, 2006
LOUISIANA-LAFAYETTE QUOTES
Head Coach Stefni Lotief
Opening Statement
“I think it was a hard-fought game. It wasn’t executed perfectly, but I give credit to our kids. We kept fighting and fighting and found a way to put some runs on the board. I’m very proud of them.”
On trying to hit Emily Turner in the middle of the game…
“We were just trying to go up there, get quality at-bats and work on our game plan and make the adjustments.”
On putting in Ashley Kirchberg in relief…
“I had no plan to pitch her in this game, but we did bring her in and I think she did an excellent job in relief.”
Pitcher Ashley Kirchberg
On if she felt warmed up to enter the game…
“It didn’t take me that long. I went out there for about 10 minutes, but I was kind of pressed for time. I came in, and I thought my stuff worked for the amount of time I stayed out there.”
LF Danyele Gomez
On trying to hit Emily Turner in the middle of the game…
“We kept battling at the plate and trying to make adjustments, and at the end of the game we did make the adjustments. We just came up a little short. We’ll have to get her next time.”