OXFORD, Miss. ? After splitting a pair on Saturday, the ninth-ranked LSU softball team earned the rubber match win over Ole Miss, 4-0, on Sunday afternoon at the Ole Miss Softball Complex to complete Southeastern Conference opening weekend.
With the win, the Tigers improved to 24-4 on the year and 2-1 in SEC play. The loss dropped the Rebels to 9-15 on the season and 1-2 in conference action. LSU has now won 10 of its 11 SEC opening series, with its only loss coming in 2005.
“This Tiger team showed resilience,” said LSU head coach Yvette Girouard. “It wasn’t a pretty weekend and we could have very easily folded after that first game.”
Dani Hofer earned the complete-game shutout to improve to 10-1 on the season. It marked the seventh complete-game shutout of the season and eighth shutout of the year for Hofer. She allowed four hits with no walks and four strikeouts after allowing only two hits in a nine-inning complete-game shutout win on Saturday.
“It was quite obvious that we weren’t quite hitting, literally, on all cylinders,” said Girouard, “but we got some good pitching from Dani and got some key opportunities that finally broke our way.”
Dee Dee Henderson extended her hitting streak to 11 games with an infield single in the top of the seventh inning. It marks the longest streak of the season and is four games shy of the school record of 15 games done twice during the 2004 season. Henderson recorded two hits in the first game and one hit in each of the final two games of the series.
The Tigers broke through and got on the scoreboard in the top of the fourth, courtesy of several miscues by the Rebels. Leslie Klein reached on a fielding error by the shortstop to lead off the inning. Klein then stole second. With one out, Quinlan Duhon singled up the middle, allowing Klein to come around to score. Kristen Hobbs then drew a walk as Duhon moved to second, prompting a pitching change from Ole Miss.
Duhon and Hobbs moved to second and third on a wild pitch. On the fourth ball of a walk to Vanessa Soto, a passed ball by Amber Tramp allowed Duhon to score and sent Hobbs to third. With runners at the corners, Soto stole second. On the throw down by the catch, the ball sailed into center field, allowing Hobbs to score from third for the 3-0 LSU lead.
In the top of the sixth, the Tigers again added a run on another Rebel error. After two walks put runners on first and second, Soto singled off the glove of the first baseman as the ball went into right field. On the play, Roessner rounded third and came around to score as the throw from right field sailed away.
Mary Jane Callahan started and took the loss to fall to 6-5 on the season. She allowed three unearned runs on two hits with two walks and a strikeout in three and a third innings. Becky Nye came on in relief in the fourth and allowed one unearned run on three this with three walks and two strikeouts in three and two-thirds innings.
LSU returns home for a mid-week game against Texas-San Antonio on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Tiger Park. The game will be broadcast on the LSU Sports Radio in Baton Rouge on The X ? 104.5/104.9 FM.
The Tigers will then open SEC play at home against nationally ranked Florida in a three-game series beginning on Saturday and concluding on Sunday. The Gators have knocked off a pair of No. 1-ranked teams this year when Florida defeated then No. 1 Arizona earlier in the year and No. 1 Tennessee on Saturday. The final game of the series will be televised live on Cox Sports Television in Baton Rouge on cable channel 37.
“We kept battling at the plate but we’ve got some work ahead of us to get prepared for a mid-week game and then a much better opponent in Florida,” said Girouard.