AUSTIN, Texas – The No. 18 LSU softball team bounced back with a 4-1 victory over No. 21 DePaul after dropping a 1-0 decision to No. 19 North Carolina to open 2010 season Friday at the Time Warner Texas Invitational held at McCombs Field on the Texas campus.
Kirsten Shortridge fired her first seven-inning complete game in the purple and gold. She racked up six strikeouts, her most as a Tiger (1-1) and limited DePaul (0-1) to only one run on a trio of hits.
Shortridge helped her own cause with a leadoff single and stolen base in the first inning. After walks to Rachel Mitchell and Ashley Langoni to load the bases, Anissa Young cranked a two-out, RBI-single into centerfield to give LSU a 1-0 lead.
The Blue Demons manufactured a run in the home half of the frame. Lynsey Ciezki walked, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt and over to third on a Becca Heteniak single. As Heteniak attempted to steal second base, she was caught in a rundown which allowed Ciezki to take home and even the score at 1-1.
Two batters later, Shortridge kept the game tied with a double play ball as she snagged a line drive off the bat of Brittney Yniguez.
LSU fired back in the third inning on an Ashley Langoni RBI-double to score Rachel Mitchell, who reached on an infield single. Young struck again and belted a 1-2 offering off the centerfield scoreboard to push the Tiger advantage to 4-1.
That would be all the run support Shortridge would need as the Keller, Texas product hit her stride in the circle and retired 14 of next 15 batters she faced starting with the Yniguez double play.
“Our two sophomores [Langoni and Young] really swung the bat well and Shortridge was dynamite in the circle,” head coach Yvette Girouard said. “Kirsten was in command and did an excellent job of getting them to swing at pitchers-pitches.”
DePaul sent the tying run to the plate in the sixth inning on two occasions, but the Tigers received a pair of stellar defensive plays from Juliana Santos at shortstop to secure the 4-1 win.
“I thought most of my pitches were working and Lauren [Houston] did a great job of keeping me comfortable behind the plate in her first game,” Shortridge said. “The defense was on and I trust them to make plays. It makes me a confidant pitcher knowing that I have that kind of defense behind me.”
LSU and North Carolina opened the tournament in a pitcher’s duel as Rachele Fico made her much-anticipated Tiger debut. She faced off against two-time All-American and ACC Player of the Year Danielle Spaulding, who led the nation in strikeouts per seven innings last season.
The Tar Heels grabbed a 1-0 advantage in the second inning as Brittany Robinson capped a 15-pitch at-bat with a solo homer over the left field fence.
The Tigers put multiple runners on-base in the second, third and fifth innings. Spaulding got out of the jam each time with fly balls to keep LSU off the scoreboard.
Fico kept the Tigers in striking distance as the Oxford, Connecticut native sat down 12 of the final 15 batters she faced and finished with six strikeouts.
“Rachele threw excellent and had to work through some adversity,” Girouard said. “She did well battling the weather and pitched well enough to win. The home run was the coaches’ mistake on a pitch that shouldn’t have been called and we paid the price for it.”
“I felt all my pitches were working well, and I made some adjustments once the game got going,” Fico said. “That helped me settle down and find a rhythm. I have the same approach to every game I throw and today was no different.”
LSU made a final rally attempt in the seventh inning. With one out, Shortridge slapped an infield single and swiped second base. Ashley Applegate knocked a fly ball to left field that dropped in-front of UNC’s Kelli Wheeler, who recovered the ball in time to keep Shortridge at third base.
Mitchell followed with a ground ball towards third base and Robinson tossed the ball home to get Shortridge on a bang-bang play at the plate. Spaulding got Santos to pop up on the next pitch as LSU left 10 runners on-base, seven in scoring position, in the 1-0 loss.
“I don’t want to take anything away from Spaulding because her spins were tight, and she changed plains to be effective against us,” Girouard said. “The play at the plate could have gone either way. The bottom line is we had seven innings to score runs with an offense that is more than capable.”
LSU wraps up pool play Saturday and squares off with tournament host Texas before moving onto bracket play. First pitch against the Longhorns is slated for 1:30 p.m. with live stats available on LSUsports.net and live in-game updates at www.twitter.com/lsu_softball.
Bracket play begins Saturday at 5 p.m. with the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds facing each other. Check LSUsports.net for the Tigers second game time and opponent.