BATON ROUGE — The LSU softball team remained perfect in the Fall Collegiate Classic by winning two games over Louisiana College and LSU-Alexandria on Saturday at the original Tiger Park.
The Tigers defeated Louisiana College 4-0 and followed that with an 11-3 victory over LSU-A.
“We struggled throughout the first game but took advantage of their errors,” LSU head coach Yvette Girouard said. “We were moving people around to see different situations from a coach’s perspective. We are finding out a lot about our freshmen in a game atmosphere. We have two more games tomorrow, and hopefully we will see more production.”
Against Louisiana College, LSU opened the scoring in the top of the second inning. Freshman catcher Morgan Russell drove in the first run of the game on a single that plated freshman second baseman Ashley Langoni.
The Tigers picked up another run in the top of the fourth inning when junior Rachel Mitchell singled to right field to score Ashley Applegate from second base. The run was set up by a Lady Wildcat error as Applegate reached base with two outs when the shortstop booted the ball and allowed Applegate to advance to second.
LSU tacked on the final two runs of the game in the sixth inning. Jessica Mouse singled to left field to score freshman Courtney Hollier from third base. Freshman Lindsey Gautreaux walked, which sent Mouse to second. Junior transfer Kirsten Shortridge delivered a base hit to right field to score Mouse with the final run of the game.
LSU’s pitching was dominant as Cody Trahan pitched the first five innings and only surrendered one hit while striking out 11. Shortridge moved into the circle and pitched a perfect two innings to close out the game, striking out two batters.
In the Tigers’ second game of the day, LSU jumped on LSU-Alexandria early by scoring three in the first inning. After Shortridge was hit by a pitch and advanced to third on a sacrifice by Applegate, Mitchell singled to right to score Shortridge and give LSU a 1-0 lead. Langoni followed Mitchell’s single with a two-run blast to straight-away center field. The homerun marked Langoni’s second of the tournament.
LSU tacked on two runs in the bottom of the second when Mouse ripped a two-run single to left field, scoring freshmen Lauren Capello and Hollier to increase the lead to 5-0 after two.
In the third inning with Shortridge on second base and Applegate on first, Mitchell smashed a towering double that caromed off the right field wall and scored Shortridge. Langoni followed Mitchell and picked up her third RBI of the game on a bloop single to left that scored Applegate from third to make it 7-0. The Tigers made it 8-0 in the fourth inning after Katie Guillory walked with the bases loaded, but the Generals escaped without LSU doing more damage.
The Tigers increased the lead to 10-0 in the fifth inning when freshman Juliana Santos ripped a two-out, two-run single to left, scoring Applegate and Mitchell.
LSU-Alexandria answered with three runs in the top of the sixth off freshman pitcher Brittany Mack, who surrendered four hits in the inning. The Tigers responded with a run in the bottom half of the inning when Katie Hamilton smashed a RBI double to left field to score Casey Faile and provide the final margin of 11-3.
Faile got the start in the circle for LSU, and she pitched four shutout innings, giving up one hit while striking out five. Mack surrendered three runs on six hits in two innings to close the game for the Tigers.
LSU will finish tournament play with two games on Sunday. The Tigers will face Chipola Community College at 11 a.m. followed by Louisiana ?Monroe at 1 p.m.
In the first game of the day, Louisiana College defeated LSU-A 4-0. In the second game, Chipola beat Louisiana College 2-1. In the third game of the day, Chipola defeated LSU-A 5-3.