BATON ROUGE — In front of over 1,000 fans at Tiger Park, the fifth-ranked LSU softball team split a Southeastern Conference doubleheader with South Carolina, falling 2-1 in game one, before rebounding for an 8-0 win in five innings in game two on Friday afternoon.
With the split, the Tigers snapped their eight game winning streak and moved to 38-6 overall and 13-3 in SEC play, falling just behind No. 1 Tennessee in the overall conference standings, but remaining ahead of No. 2 Alabama in the Western Division. The split moved the Gamecocks to 26-14 on the year and 4-9 in league action, remaining in ninth in the overall standings and fourth in the SEC East.
“We leave today feeling a little better about ourselves because we won the second game, but the first game was almost over before we knew it,” said LSU head coach Yvette Girouard. “We’ve got to make a few adjustments for tomorrow and swing the bat like we did in the last game.”
The pair will meet in the rubber match on Saturday at 1 p.m. Once again, softball teams wearing their team uniforms will be admitted to Tiger Park for FREE courtesy of The Advocate.
LSU moved to 21-11 all-time against South Carolina, including an 11-4 record in Baton Rouge. The Tigers have won six of the previous 10 series, with a pair of losses and a pair of splits. In the previous two series in which LSU has lost a game this year, the Tigers dropped game one before rebounding to win the final two games and earn the series win.
Dani Hofer threw a one-hit shutout in game two to improve to 16-1 on the year. She allowed just a lone single to left field to lead off the top of the second before retiring the final 12 batters in order to end the game. Hofer walked one and had one reach on a catcher’s interference call in the first, but struck out the side to end that inning. For the game, she struck out seven of the 18 batters she faced.
Emily Turner took the loss in game one to fall to 13-5 on the year. She allowed two runs on six hits, three of which came in South Carolina’s game-winning two-run fifth inning, with six strikeouts in the complete-game effort. Melissa Hendon earned the complete-game win to improve to 11-9 on the year. She allowed one run on four hits with a walk and two strikeouts.
In game one, LSU could not put its hits together, with the exception of the back-to-back hits by Rachel Mitchell and Tayl’r Hollis in the second inning. The Tigers stranded four on base, with a runner left in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings.
“We didn’t take advantage of our opportunities and had way too many throw away at-bats, although you have to give credit to the South Carolina pitcher and the Gamecock team for doing what they needed to do,” Girouard said of game one.
Conversely, South Carolina got timely hits that were just able to fall. The Gamecocks got a bloop single before a ball that just fell into shallow center was able to score the first South Carolina run, as pinch runner Cagney Davis slid in just under the tag of Killian Roessner at the plate. The Gamecocks then got a ball off of the glove of Vanessa Soto at first base that trickled into right field was able to score the winning run.
LSU came back strong in the second game to post its 13th run-rule win of the year. The Tigers got one unearned run in the first before adding a run in the third on an RBI single by Leslie Klein. LSU broke the game open with six runs in the fifth inning, including a walk-off double by Quinlan Duhon to end the game.
Klein led off the fifth with a five-pitch walk. She moved to second don a single by Roessner. On a double steal, Klein took third and Roessner advanced to second. With one out, Hollis doubled to right field to score both Klein and Roessner.
Kristen Hobbs came up with her sixth home run of the year to center field, which moved her into a tie for the team lead. Shannon Stein then singled and moved to second on a wild pitch. A double down the left field line by Andrea Smith scored Stein and put the winning run at second. Duhon then doubled to left field to score Smith and give the Tigers the 8-0 win.
Kate Pouliot took the loss to fall to 13-4 on the year. She allowed eight runs, seven of which were earned, on 11 hits with four walks and three strikeouts the four and a third inning complete game.
LSU will conclude its six-game home stand on Wednesday against Southeastern Louisiana at 6 p.m. The Tigers will then travel to Starkville, Miss., for an SEC doubleheader against Mississippi State next Saturday. The series, originally scheduled for the mid-week, was pushed back to the weekend and will serve as LSU’s final doubleheader series.