BATON ROUGE — The No. 21 LSU softball team earned a critical sweep picking up 3-2 and 6-5 victories over No. 2 Alabama Wednesday evening in-front of 1,635 fans at the new Tiger Park.
“This was a dog fight from start to finish,” head coach Yvette Girouard said. “It’s always a battle against Alabama. These were two unbelievable wins for our young team. The aspect of this team that I continue to absolutely love is that they never quit.”
The Tigers (17-6, 4-2 SEC) erupted for five runs in the fifth inning in game two to turn a 5-1 deficit into a 6-5 lead. Jessica Mouse, Kirsten Shortridge and Jazz Jackson strung together a trio of singles to ignite a one-out rally and load the bases for Juliana Santos, who was hit-by-a-pitch to pull LSU back to 5-2.
On the next pitch, Rachel Mitchell belted a bases clearing double into the left centerfield gap to even the score at 5-5. Ashley Applegate tacked on a single and Mitchell alertly scored the go-ahead when Alabama shortstop Kellie Eubanks dropped the throw into second base by right fielder Jennifer Fenton.
Shortridge fired four innings of three-hit relief and nailed down the 6-5 win by retiring eight of the last nine batters she faced to improve to 3-2 in the circle. It was her first pitching appearance since facing UAB on February 21.
“Kirsten had been hurting and not been able to get into the bullpen to work on pitching,” Girouard said. “We are taking steps forward with Kirsten [pitching] from here on out. She took it one pitch at a time, and acted as if the next pitch was the most important pitch every time.”
Alabama (23-4, 3-2 SEC) used a pair of two-run home runs by Jazlyn Lunceford and Whitney Lawson in the second and third innings coupled with a Charlotte Morgan RBI-double in the fifth to build a 5-1 advantage.
“I felt the intensity that I thought I might have lost since it had been a while since I was on the mound,” Shortridge said. “All the things our team was missing are finally coming together. We are seeing glimpses of how awesome our team really is.”
In game one, Morgan kept the Crimson Tide alive with a two-out, RBI-single in the seventh inning to tie the score at 2-2.
Anissa Young opened the home half of the frame lining out to UA second baseman Whitney Larson on a 2-0 pitch. After the out, Girouard went to home plate umpire James Martarona to challenge that Alabama head coach Patrick Murphy didn’t report Larson’s substitution.
Young was able to bat again and took two balls for a leadoff walk. After a wild pitch moved pinch runner Katie Guillory to second base, Morgan Russell followed with sacrifice bunt to advance Guillory to third.
Mouse put runners on the corners after getting hit-by-a-pitch. With two outs, Jazz Jackson delivered the decisive blow forcing a fielding error from Eubanks at shortstop that allowed Guillory to cross home plate for the 3-2 win.
“I knew something was up when the coaches started running towards me,” Girouard said. “They [Alabama] did not report the defensive switch, and that was a turning point in the game. It changed the whole completion of that inning for us.”
Alabama’s Brittany Rogers opened the game with bunt single and stolen base. A RBI-double from Kelley Montalvo gave the Crimson Tide a 1-0 edge.
LSU fired back in the third inning as Mouse started the frame with a double and advanced to third base on a Shortridge infield single. Santos knocked a one-out RBI-single down the left field line to knot the score at 1-1.
The Tigers snatched a 2-1 advantage when Ashley Langoni cranked her team-leading fourth homer of the season onto the left field berm in the fifth inning.
Cody Trahan bounced back with an eight-strikeout performance against two walks. She was touched up for only two runs on six hits to improve to 6-1.
“We worked a lot this week on fixing my curve ball,” Trahan said. “I have to constantly remind myself that I can do this and stay confident. These wins were a huge boost for our confidence.”
LSU embarks on a five-game road trip with a weekend series at Mississippi State followed by a Tuesday doubleheader at Ole Miss. Saturday’s doubleheader against the Bulldogs starts at 1 p.m. Live stats for both games will be available on LSUSports.net
“This [winning both games] is what we came out here to do,” Mitchell said. “It gives us confidence that we can have the upper hand in the Western Division. However, we need to keep our head on our shoulders and concentrate on Mississippi State this weekend.”