BATON ROUGE — Anissa Young belted a 2-0 pitch onto the left field berm to open the seventh inning as the No. 18 LSU softball team tallied a 3-3 tie with No. 13 Tennessee Sunday at the new Tiger Park in the program’s inaugural “Swing for the Cure” game.
Due to Tennessee’s (29-8-1, 6-5-1 SEC) travel arrangements, the game ended after seven innings of play. It was the first tie for a conference game in SEC softball history.
Kirsten Shortridge and Jazz Jackson combined for a 5-10 effort at the plate, but LSU (22-9-1, 8-5-1 SEC) was plagued by leaving 14 runners on-base.
“It doesn’t count as a loss, but we did lose the series,” head coach Yvette Girouard said. “We battled today, but there wasn’t a lot of production in some spots. It was a bad weekend at the plate and that’s what really hurt us.”
The Tigers rose over $5000 between the on-site auction, donation cards collected at the game and a $500 donation by McDonalds. All proceeds went to benefit the Baton Rouge Affiliate of the Susan G. Komen for Cure.
There are still items available at www.komenbatonrouge.org as part of an online auction that closes at midnight on April 26, including a pair of pink marucci bats signed by LSU football coach Les Miles and baseball coach Paul Mainieri along with a set of two pink refurbished chairs from the old Tiger Park courtesy of Denicola’s Tiger Den.
Five pink jerseys also are available online and donation cards are still being collected by the LSU Marketing Department. Checks can be made payable to “Komen for the Cure” to: Swing for the Cure, c/o LSU Athletics, Marketing and Promotions, P.O. Box 25095, Baton Rouge, LA 70894
“It was amazing to have all these fans come watch us and support this great cause,” Young said. “I loved every single second of it.”
LSU struck first with a run in the first inning. Shortridge knocked a leadoff single through the left side and stolen second base. A UT fielding error and a Rachel Mitchell walk loaded the bases for Ashley Applegate, who was hit-by-a-pitch to put LSU ahead, 1-0.
The Tigers added another run in the fourth inning as Mitchell platted Mouse on sacrifice fly to push the lead to 2-0.
Jessica Spigner drew the Lady Vols even at 2-2 in the fifth inning with a two-run homer, and Kelly Grieve notched a RBI-single during the sixth inning to give Tennessee a 3-2 advantage.
LSU returns to action Tuesday at Nicholls. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. with live stats available on LSUSports.net
“It’s spring break and we need to get some stuff fixed,” Girouard said. “They need to work harder because right now what we’re doing is not making it easy for us.”