BATON ROUGE – The No. 19 LSU softball team used a five run fourth inning to power past Oklahoma State 5-1 in bracket play after dropping a 2-0 decision to No. 4 Michigan Saturday during day two of the Wilson/DeMarini Tiger Classic at Tiger Park.
The Tigers (6-4) advance to face Virginia, a 2-1 winner over Michigan, in Sunday’s championship game. First pitch has been moved to 10 a.m. to accommodate the Cavaliers travel arrangements. The consolation game between Michigan and Oklahoma State will start 30 minutes after the LSU-Virginia match-up.
“We talk about not losing two games in a row,” head coach Yvette Girouard said. “If you have any metal to you, you have to step up and bounce back. It is a long season and you try to avoid losing streaks so it is important that we came back and answered the bell tonight.”
Kirsten Shortridge and Kat Espinosa were locked in a pitcher’s duel during the first three innings. Espinosa retired nine of the first 10 batters she faced before the Tigers strung together five straight hits to start the fourth inning.
Back-to-back singles by Ashley Applegate and Rachel Mitchell set the table for an Anissa Young, who ripped a RBI-double to the right field fence to give LSU a 1-0 advantage. Espinosa was chased from the game, but Ashley Langoni continued the Tiger hit barrage with a RBI-single to make it 2-0.
Courtney Hollier tacked on her first career RBI with single to plate pinch runner Tiffany Shaw. Two batters later, Jessica Mouse hammered a two-run double down the right field line to cap the frame and push the LSU lead to 5-0.
“Good things are happening for Courtney,” Girouard said. “I can’t say enough about that young lady. She works as hard as anyone I have ever coached, she is a great person. You want great things to happen to people like her and great things have been happening for her.”
Oklahoma State (6-3) used a single, a hit batter and walk to load the bases with one out in the fifth inning. The Tigers turned to Rachele Fico out of the bullpen, who forced a pair of choppers back to mound in between a hit-batter to keep the Tigers ahead 5-1. Fico limited the Cowgirls to a pair of hits over the final two frames to record her second save in as many nights.
“I think Ray is a good closer,” Girouard said. “She didn’t come in and automatically strike everyone out. She handles the situation well at the end of games and gets outs for us. She can put the ball on people’s hands and really trusts her defense behind her. We might have found a little gem by bringing her in at the end of games.”
LSU couldn’t get the bats going in a 2-0 setback to Michigan as All-American hurler Jordan Taylor limited the Tigers to three hits and tallied 13 strikeouts to improve to 4-0 on the season.
The Wolverines took advantage of a Brittany Mack fielding error in the first inning. After a sacrifice bunt and a ground ball moved Bree Evans to third base, she came around to score on a wild pitch for the game’s first run.
LSU used alert running on the base paths by Shortridge and Mitchell to put runners on second and third with one out in the home half of the frame. The Tigers couldn’t provide the equalizer as Young struck out followed by check-swing pop-up by Langoni to keep the score at 1-0.
LSU threatened again in the fourth inning after Mitchell and Langoni squeezed out singles to put runners on first and second base with one out. Taylor responded with a pair of strikeouts to escape the jam to open a stretch of 11 consecutive batters retired to end the game.
Michigan manufactured an insurance run in the fifth inning when Maggie Viefhaus provided a two-out RBI-single to push the Wolverine edge to 2-0.
First pitch for Sunday’s championship game against the Cavaliers has been moved to 10 a.m. to accommodate Virginia’s travel plans. Live stats are available on LSUsports.net in addition to in-game updates on www.twitter.com/lsu_softball.
“It is crazy the way things set up,” Girouard said. “It is the only game they [Virginia] won but it was the big game. I am sure they are flying high. [Pitcher] Melanie Mitchell is getting better the more she has thrown. We have to hit the ball tomorrow and make some things happen.”
Visit www.LSUsports.net/livestats to follow all games, and check out the tournament homepage for the complete schedule and results.