BATON ROUGE — With one of the best weekends of her career, LSU second baseman Shannon Stein earned Most Valuable Player honors as the Tigers swept a pair of games on Sunday to capture the 2008 Easton Tiger Classic championship at Tiger Park.
LSU posted a 10-2 win over Ball State in six innings before coming from behind to defeat Nicholls State, 9-2, in the championship game. The Tigers remain undefeated on the season at 6-0 and will face in-state rival Southeastern Louisiana on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Tiger Park before traveling to Palm Springs, Calif., next weekend for the prestigious Palm Springs Classic.
Batting from the ninth spot, Stein posted a .667 batting average on 10-for-15 hitting. She recorded a pair of doubles and the second home run of her career to go along with five RBIs, six runs scored and three stolen bases. In the championship game against the Colonels, she was 2-for-2 with two RBIs and a run scored.
“She’s always been a gamer,” said LSU head coach Yvette Girouard. “The first time we put her in there was against Monica Abbott and boom, she hit a home run. The couple of times we’ve gone to the College World Series, a number nine hitter has been the best hitter on the team. And right now Shannon Stein is our best hitter.”
Along with Stein, the Tigers’ Dani Hofer, Tayl’r Hollis and Quinlan Duhon were named to the all-tournament team. Hofer was 3-0 on the weekend, including a win in the title game, while Hollis hit .412 with a double, triple, two home runs and 11 RBIs. Duhon recorded a .438 average with two doubles, a home run and seven RBIs.
In the championship game, the Colonels took advantage of a leadoff triple by Kathryn Harrell and an uncommon throwing error by Killian Roessner to score first and carry a 1-0 lead into the third inning.
“I’d like to score in every inning and I’d like to score first, but this team didn’t panic when we were down,” said Girouard. “There is no panic on this team.”
The Tigers took the lead for good with a pair of RBI doubles and a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the third to pull ahead, 4-1. Rachel Mitchell put LSU on the board with a two-run double before a sacrifice fly by Roessner added a third run. The Tigers closed out the scoring in the inning with an RBI double by Duhon.
LSU added two more in the bottom of the fourth as Stein pounded a two-RBI single. With two more runs in the bottom of the fifth, the Tigers were within run-rule territory as Roessner hit an RBI double and pinch runner Tiffany Shaw scored on a sacrifice fly by Casey Faile. Unfortunately the Tigers stranded the potential game-ending run at third base.
In the top of the sixth, the Colonels got their only other run of the game. After a leadoff walk, Amy Thibodeaux hit a ball just within the foul line down the right field line, scoring Kodi Butler from first. An RBI single by Jazz Jackson in the bottom half of the inning put LSU close to the magical eight-run mark once again, but she was stranded on third to end the inning as the game went to the seventh. Only a one-out single blemished the seventh for the Tigers as LSU cruised to a 9-2 victory.
“We need to clean up our errors,” said Girouard. “We need to pitch better. Offensively we could have ended the game sooner, but we have a lot of talent out there on the field. We’re trying to figure things our real quick before SEC starts so that when we open the drawer we know what we’re going to get.”
Hofer went the entire way and earned the win for LSU. She allowed two runs, only one of which was earned, on four hits with four walks with nine strikeouts. Krystalin Ensminger took the loss for Nicholls State to fall to 1-3 on the year. She started and allowed four runs on five hits with a walk in two and two-thirds innings. Audrey Wood came on in relief and gave up two runs, one earned, on two hits and a strikeout in a third of an inning. Jessica Barksdale closed it out by allowing three runs on five hits with a walk in the final three innings.
The Tigers started the day with a run-rule win over Ball State to advance to the championship game. After the Cardinals gave LSU a scare in their first meeting in a two-run contest, the Tigers erupted for four runs in the sixth to put the game away on Sunday.
The Tigers got on the board in the first courtesy of a pair of errors by Ball State. After Jackson recorded a one-out single, she stole second. On the play, she moved to third as the ball sailed into center field and then took home as the throw from center field went into the LSU dugout.
In the second, the Tigers added three more to pull ahead by four. Stein drew a bases loaded walk to score the first run. A single by Dee Dee Henderson scored run number two and a sacrifice fly by Jackson closed out the scoring.
The Cardinals threatened in the top of the third by adding two runs and cutting the LSU lead in half. After Tiffany Garcia walked a pair of batters, Abby Gross recorded a two-RBI single up the middle as the score moved to 4-2.
That is where the score remained until the bottom of the sixth. Stein led off with a single to center field. With one out, she moved to second on a ground out by Jackson. Stein then scored on an RBI single to center field by Rachel Mitchell. An illegal pitch and a walk put runners on first and second. Duhon then attempted to bunt her way on and the throw from first base bounced into right field, allowing Mitchell to score and move Ashley Applegate to third base. Hollis then ended the game with a two-RBI double down the left field line that scored Applegate and Duhon to put LSU ahead by eight.
Garcia earned the complete-game win to improve to 1-0 on the season. She allowed two runs on three hits with four walks and three strikeouts. Laura Masch went the distance for Ball State, falling to 0-1 on the year. She allowed 10 runs, six of which were earned, on 10 hits with five walks and three strikeouts.
Ball State 002 000 – 2 3 5
LSU 132 004 – 10 10 0
Laura Masch and Abby Gross. Tiffany Garcia and Killian Roessner, Erika Sluss. WP ? Tiffany Garcia (1-0). LP ? Laura Masch (0-1). Save ? None. T ? 1:55.
Nicholls State 100 001 0 – 2 4 0
LSU 004 221 x – 9 12 3
Krystalin Ensminger, Audrey Wood (3), Jessica Barksdale (4) and Haley Burkett. Dani Hofer and Killian Roessner. WP ? Dani Hofer (3-0). LP ? Krystalin Ensminger (1-3). T ? 2:12. A ? 692.
Easton Tiger Classic All-Tournament Team
Abby Gross, Ball State
Michelle Fuzzard, Chattanooga
Kathryn Harrell, Nicholls State
Kodi Butler, Nicholls State
Audrey Wood, Nicholls State
Dani Hofer, LSU
Tayl’r Hollis, LSU
Quinlan Duhon, LSU
Shannon Stein*, LSU
* Most Valuable Player