BATON ROUGE — Kirsten Shortridge fueled the No. 19 LSU softball team with five RBIs in game one and then tossed a three-hit shutout during the second game as the Tigers took a pair of 8-0, five-inning decisions over South Carolina Saturday at the new Tiger Park.
LSU (29-14-1, 12-9-1 SEC) ended a four-game losing streak and has won 10 of its last 12 meetings with the Gamecocks (20-21, 5-18 SEC).
“Kirsten is an amazing player that is capable of hitting a bomb in one game and turn around to pitch a shutout in the next game,” head coach Yvette Girouard said. “Her arm hasn’t been completely healthy and that’s why we haven’t pitched her as much as we like.”
The Tigers will honor senior pitcher Dani Hofer prior to Sunday’s game. She is scheduled to start in the circle and throw one pitch making her first appearance of the 2009 season. First pitch is on-tap for 1 p.m.
The series finale will be broadcasted live on The X 104.5/104.9 FM. Patrick Wright and Kent Lowe calling the action live from new Tiger Park. Live stats also will be available on LSUSports.net
Game 1 ? LSU 8, South Carolina 0 (5 Innings)
Kirsten Shortridge ignited the Tigers in the first inning with a bunt single. She stole second base and moved over to third on a Jazz Jackson ground ball. Rachel Mitchell platted Shortridge on a sacrifice fly to make it 1-0.
LSU reeled off four runs in the second inning as Anissa Young reached on a throwing error, Casey Faile added a single and Morgan Russell was hit-by-a-pitch to load the bases. Shortridge cleared the bases with a grand slam over the right field fence pushing the Tiger advantage to 5-0.
Juliana Santos tacked on a two-run homer in fourth inning, while Shortridge capped a five RBI game with a bases load walk in the fifth inning for the final margin of 8-0.
Cody Trahan bounced back from the shortest start of her career and fired a two-out shutout to improve to 8-5. She racked up seven strikeouts against one walk on an economical 79 pitches and retired eight of the final nine hitters with four strikeouts.
Game 2 ? LSU 8, South Carolina 0 (5 Innings)
LSU once again jumped on the Gamecocks with a run in the first inning as Kirsten Shortridge opened the game with an infield single came around to score on a Rachel Mitchell single up-the-middle. An Ashley Applegate RBI-single and a two-run double from Anissa Young in the third inning made it 4-0.
LSU put the game away with four unearned runs in the fourth inning. Juliana Santos, Applegate and Young struck for RBIs for the final margin of 8-0.
Shortridge scattered three hits and added three strikeouts to push her record to 4-3. South Carolina’s Audrey Broyles was tagged with her second loss of the day to fall to 10-11.