BATON ROUGE — In front of a crowd of more than 1,000, All-American Killian Roessner‘s walk-off home run in the bottom of the 10th inning gave No. 10 LSU the Southeastern Conference doubleheader sweep of Auburn, 8-1 and 5-3, on Friday evening at Tiger Park.
With the wins, the purple and gold Fighting Tigers improve to 26-4 on the year and 5-0 in SEC play. LSU has now won 14-straight contests and remains atop the SEC standings with an undefeated record. AU, which is receiving votes in the national polls, dropped to 27-6 overall and 7-3 in league play as LSU snapped Auburn’s eight-game winning streak and AU moved to third place in the SEC Western Division standings.
“It was just an awesome atmosphere today,” said LSU head coach Yvette Girouard. “The crowd was incredible and the stands were packed. It was a great SEC Friday afternoon. We’ve just got to come out tomorrow and make some adjustments.”
With the score tied at three in the bottom of the 10th, Roessner came to the plate with none out and Rachel Mitchell on second due to the international tie breaker rule. Stepping to the plate with a 1-0 count, the 2007 Diamond Sports National Catcher of the Year drove a ball out over the batting cages in left field to give LSU the 5-2 win.
It wasn’t the first heroics for Roessner in the game, however. In the bottom of the seventh with two outs and the Fighting Tigers trailing, 3-2, she came through with an RBI single that scored Jazz Jackson to tie it up and send the game into extra innings. The reigning SEC Player of the Week finished the contest 3-for-3 with a home run and four RBIs after getting shutout at the plate in game one.
“There were also some heroics,” said Girouard. “Jazz coming up with the two-out base hit and Killian, obviously, with her dramatic home run were huge for us. “
Dani Hofer earned both wins for LSU in the circle, throwing a complete game in her first outing before coming on in relief in game two. The junior improved to 13-2 on the year as she struck out 19 in nine innings on the day, including 15 in game one. Hofer allowed only one run while giving up only three hits in the first game and one in the second with three walks in game one. Cody Trahan started and threw eight good innings, allowing three runs on five hits with two walks and 11 strikeouts.
“Obviously a great performance on the night by Dani Hofer,” said Girouard. “I thought Dani, with the exception of one inning, threw phenomenal. Anytime we can stop the opposing team from scoring in the international tie breaker, we always feel good that we can win it in our at bat.”
Mitchell led LSU at the plate for the day, going 4-for-8 with two doubles, a home run and four RBIs. Her solo home run in the third inning of game two gave the Fighting Tigers the lead, 2-1, at the time. She also recorded a pair of doubles in the first game, knocking in three runs on those two hits. Dee Dee Henderson was 3-for-6 on the day with a triple, which was just shy of an inside the park home run, two runs scored and two RBIs. Quinlan Duhon was 2-for-2 in game one with a run scored.
“We came out swinging,” said Girouard. “It was good to see Rachel Mitchell swinging the bat like that again. I had actually thought about not starting Quinlan but I’m glad we did.
“Dee Dee was phenomenal,” Girouard added. “She’s such a weapon when she gets on base and is so much fun to watch. There were some good moments by a lot of different Tigers.”
The Fighting Tigers came out and dominated in the first game. LSU took control with a pair of runs in the bottom of the third as Mitchell knocked in Henderson and Shannon Stein on her first double of the day. The purple and gold added two more in the fourth on the triple by Henderson, who was stopped after a hard round of third and the ball not yet to the infield.
Two more runs in the sixth put LSU ahead 6-0 as Casey Faile came through with a pinch hit two-RBI single. Auburn got its lone run of the game in the top of the sixth. After a leadoff single by Cassie Trosclair, Brittany Scott tripled to score Trosclair and cut the Fighting Tiger lead to five. The purple and gold responded with two more runs in the sixth to close out the scoring for the game. Back-to-back doubles by Jackson and Mitchell pushed the score to the 8-1 final.
Brittany Day started and took the loss for Auburn to fall to 8-2 on the year. She allowed two runs on five hits with two strikeouts in two innings. Angel Bunner came on in the third and allowed six runs on seven hits with three walks and a strikeout over three innings. Lauren Schmalz closed out the game by retiring all three batters she faced in the seventh.
In the nightcap, AU jumped out to the lead in the top of the first. Myesha Finney drew a one-out walk before stealing second. A double by Tatiana Fernandez scored Finney from second to give Auburn’s its first lead of the day.
LSU responded with a run of its own in the bottom half of the inning. Jackson reached with one out on a throwing error by the shortstop, she moved to third on a single by Mitchell before scoring on a sacrifice fly by Roessner. With one out in the third, Mitchell put the Fighting Tigers ahead with a solo home run that cleared the back fence and hit the street outside of Tiger Park.
In the top of the third, Auburn retook the lead on an RBI single by Jorja Bell. Finney led off the inning with a single. She scored on the second double of the game by Fernandez. The game remained at 3-2 in favor of AU until there were two outs in the bottom of the seventh. Jackson then came through with an 0-2 single down the left field line. A walk to Mitchell pushed Jackson to second. Roessner then hit a bloop single to right field that scored Jackson to tie it up and send the game to extra innings.
LSU went up and down in order in the eighth before a two-out Auburn error in the ninth put Jackson on first. The inning ended, however, with Jackson stranded at first. Auburn had the go-ahead run at second with two outs in the eighth inning before Trahan recorded her 11th strikeout of the game to retire the side. Hofer then gave up a leadoff single in the top of the ninth before retiring the final six batters she faced in order to end the game.
Anna Thompson threw the complete game for AU, but took the loss to fall to 9-4 on the year. She allowed five runs, only three of which were earned, on eight hits with three walks and 12 strikeouts.
“Thompson threw a great game, but we were opportunistic,” said Girouard.
LSU will look to sweep its second conference series of the season on Saturday as the pair meet up in the series finale at 1 p.m. The game will be televised on Cox Sports Television in Baton Rouge on cable channel 37. In addition, the game will be broadcast on The X ? 104.5/104.9 FM in Baton Rouge and in the Geaux Zone on LSUsports.net.
The purple and gold remain at home and in conference play as LSU hosts Mississippi State in a mid-week doubleheader next Tuesday. The pair will begin play at 4 p.m. with the second game to follow right after the first is concluded. The Tigers then travel to face top 10-ranked Florida in Gainesville next weekend in a crucial three-game conference series.
Auburn 000 001 0 – 1 3 0
LSU 002 222 x – 8 12 0
Brittany Day, Angel Bunner (3), Lauren Schmalz (6) and Tatiana Fernandez. Dani Hofer and Killian Roessner. WP ? Hofer (13-2). LP ? Day (8-2). S ? None. T ? 2:04.
Auburn 100 200 000 0 – 3 6 3
LSU 101 000 100 2 – 5 8 0
Anna Thompson and Tatiana Fernandez. Cody Trahan, Dani Hofer (9) and Killian Roessner. WP ? Hofer (13-2). LP ? Thompson (9-4). S ? None. HR ? Rachel Mitchell, Killian Roessner. T ? 2:47. A ? 1,088.