CLEARWATER, Fla. — A walk-off RBI single by Killian Roessner in the bottom of the eighth inning scored Jazz Jackson and give the 10th-ranked LSU softball team a 2-1 win over South Florida on Sunday afternoon at the Eddie C. Moore Softball Complex to claim a share of the Under Armour Showcase championship.
With the win, the Tigers improved to 24-4 on the season. A perfect 4-0 record in tournament play tied Penn State for the best overall record. The loss dropped the Bulls, which are receiving votes in the national polls, to 20-10 on the season and 2-2 in tournament play.
“It was a good ballgame to watch today,” said LSU head coach Yvette Girouard. “We went through the tournament undefeated, so it was a good weekend.”
With the game using the international tie-breaker rule in the eighth, Jackson began the bottom half of the inning on second. She moved to third on a roped single to center field that pushed Jackson to third. Roessner then came up with a nearly identical single to center field to score Jackson and give the Tigers the 2-1 win.
“We got out of the tie-breaker without allowing a run in the top of the inning and felt pretty good that we were going to win the ballgame if we got Killian back up,” said Girouard. “She has been so clutch for us in so many situations and she hadn’t succeeded before and I know that if she got one more chance she’d come through and she did.”
Dani Hofer earned the complete-game win to improve to 12-2 on the season. The junior allowed one run on a solo home run, with four hits and three walks. In addition, she struck out a career-high 16 batters, including two with the go-ahead run at third base in the eighth. From the third out of fifth to the second out of the seventh, Hofer struck out six straight
“Obviously Dani had a record-setting day with her strikeouts,” said Girouard. “We’d like to take one pitch back, but we all would sometimes.
Courtney Mosch took the complete-game loss for South Florida to fall to 12-4 on the year. She allowed two unearned runs on six hits with three walks and a strikeout.
“Kudos to Courtney Mosch,” said Girouard, “She did a good job of handling our hitters and getting a lot of ground ball outs.”
In the bottom half of the first, Dee Dee Henderson drew a leadoff walk before stealing second to put the first runner in scoring position in the game. With one out, Rachel Mitchell drew a walk to put runners on first and second. An infield fly and infield ground out ended the inning
After striking out the side in the top of the first, Hofer walked the first batter of the second inning. Two strikeouts and a pop out to second base ended the inning. LSU recorded its first hit of the contest in the bottom half of the inning. With one out, Erika Sluss singled to left field. A fielder’s choice by Jessica Mouse got Sluss going to second before an infield ground out stranded Mouse at first.
South Florida drew a one-out in the top of the third for its next base runner. The next batter fouled out to Mitchell in just beyond the left field foul line. A turn and throw to first by Mitchell was able to double up the Bull runner and end the inning.
South Florida got on the scoreboard first as Jo Jo Medina hit a solo home run over the center field fence for a 1-0 lead. The Bulls threatened again in the top of the fifth. With one out, Aya Nakajima singled down the left field line. On an infield single by Kelly McCarver, the ball tipped off the glove of Mouse and rolled into the outfield, allowing Nakajima to advance to third. With runners at second and third after McCarver stole second, Hofer got back-to-back outs to end the inning.
The Tigers got some help in the bottom of the fifth and took advantage to tie it up. With one out, Mouse reached on a fielding error by the third baseman. With Tiffany Shaw running for Mouse at first, Shaw advanced to second on an infield ground out by Shannon Stein.
Henderson then came through with an RBI single just over the head of the shortstop that pushed Shaw across. On the play, Henderson moved to second to put another runner in scoring position. On an infield single by Jackson, Henderson advanced to third. After Jackson stole second and Mitchell reached on a walk, a change-up got Roessner to ground out to
After facing the minimum from the end of the fifth through the seventh, Hofer got out of trouble in the top of the eighth. With a runner on second with the international tie-breaker, the Tiger hurler walked the first batter to put runners on first and second.
A sacrifice bunt pushed the pair to second and third with one out. Hofer then came up with two of her biggest outs of the game as she struck out the final two South Florida batters to end the inning.
The Tigers will return to conference play next week. LSU will host Auburn in a three-game series at Tiger Park. Due to Easter Sunday, the series will be played on Friday and Saturday. The Tigers will square off on Friday with a doubleheader beginning at 5 p.m. before concluding the series with a single game on Saturday at 1 p.m.
All three games of the series will be broadcast on the LSU Sports Radio Network in Baton Rouge on The X ? 104.5/104.9 FM and in the Geaux Zone on LSUsports.net. In addition, the final game of the series will be televised on Cox Sports Television in Baton Rouge on cable channel 37.
USF 000 100 00 – 1 4 1
LSU 000 010 01 – 2 6 1
Courtney Mosch and Cat Olnick. Dani Hofer and Killian Roessner. WP ? Hofer (12-2). LP ? Mosch (12-4). S ? None. HR ? Jo Jo Medina. T ? 1:53. A ? 129.