AUSTIN, Texas – The No. 18 LSU softball team notched a comeback 6-3 victory over No. 19 North Carolina after dropping a hard-fought 2-1 decision to host Texas Saturday on day two of the Time Warner Texas Invitational at McCombs Field.
“It was a heartbreaking loss to Texas, but I was proud of how we showed some resiliency to come back against North Carolina,” head coach Yvette Girouard said. “We told the players not to second-guess themselves and be aggressive at the plate. We have excellent pitching, play incredible defense and just have to attack the ball consistently on offense.”
The Tigers (2-2) advance to the championship round to face Texas, a 4-1 winner over No. 21 DePaul, Sunday at 12:30 p.m.
Down 3-2 against North Carolina, LSU exploded for a quartet of runs in the fifth inning. Rachel Mitchell ignited the rally with a leadoff double and Ashley Langoni ripped a two-run home run to left centerfield to give the Tigers a 4-3 advantage.
LSU continued on the offensive assault as Courtney Hollier belted a double followed by a Casey Faile walk. Jessica Mouse capped the frame with a two-run double down to the left field line to score Hollier and pinch runner Jackie Victoriano to make it 6-3.
“We didn’t come out hitting the ball very well, but hitting is a contagious thing,” Langoni said. “Nothing could stop us after we made some adjustments and got our [bat] barrels out on the ball.”
Mitchell, Hollier and Kirsten Shortridge knocked multi-hit efforts to fuel the Tigers 10-hit attack, while Rachele Fico fired 2.2 innings of two-hit relief to secure the 6-3 win. She mixed in three strikeouts to earn her first collegiate win.
“It was a great opportunity to get another chance against North Carolina,” Fico said. “The team stepped up and the bats came alive. It’s really easy to pitch and puts me at ease when all those runs are on the board. It was a better day today because I thought I was able to work both sides of the plate more effectively.”
North Carolina (1-3) grabbed a 2-0 lead aided by an unearned run in the first inning coupled with Constance Orr RBI-single in the third inning.
LSU trimmed the deficit to 2-1 in the home half of the frame making the most of a Mouse leadoff walk, who came around to score on a Mitchell RBI-single.
The Tigers evened the score at 2-2 in the fourth inning behind a Shortridge RBI-single before North Carolina retook a 3-2 lead on a Danielle Spaulding RBI-single during the fifth inning.
“There are a lot of good things ahead for this team,” Girouard said. “It’s a long season, and we’re still adjusting some things in the lineup. All you want for your players to do is compete and stay locked in.”
LSU fired out to 1-0 edge over Texas as Mitchell started her four-hit day with an RBI-triple off the left field fence to score Shortridge in the first inning.
Brittany Mack made her season debut and racked up five strikeouts her first time through the Longhorn lineup. Texas strung together back-to-back hits in the sixth inning, but the score remained 1-0 when Langoni teamed with Santos for a textbook relay play to gun down Kori Cook at the plate.
With two outs in the seventh inning, the Longhorns used a pair of two-out RBI-hits from Amy Hooks and Raygan Feight to tag Mack with the tough-luck loss.
Fans can follow Sunday’s Time Warner Texas Invitational championship game via live stats on LSUsports.com in addition to live in-games updates on www.twitter.com/lsu_softball.