BATON ROUGE – The No. 16 LSU softball team completed an undefeated weekend and extended its winning streak to eight games with a 5-4 nine-inning victory over Houston coupled with a 5-1 triumph against Jacksonville State Sunday to conclude the Tiger Invitational.
The Tigers (13-4) rode the right-arm of Cody Trahan, who mowed down 10 Jacksonville State batters for her second consecutive double-digit strikeout effort. Trahan, an All-Tournament selection, improved to 3-0 on the season as she surrendered only one run, her first of the season, on six hits and a walk.
Kirsten Shortridge joined Trahan on the All-Tournament Team paced the Tigers at the plate and finished 2-for-4 with a double.
“Hopefully these types of games are preparing us for what is coming to us in about two weeks when we start SEC play,” head coach Yvette Girouard said. “Timely hitting and outstanding pitching is what is pulling us through right now. We’ve played some outstanding opponents, and I believe our strength of schedule is really going to pay off for us at the end.”
LSU grabbed a 1-0 edge behind a Lauren Houston RBI-single in the second inning. After allowing a pair of singles to start the game, Trahan found a groove and retired seven straight until a solo home run from Chrissy O’Neal tied the score at 1-1 in the third inning.
LSU turned to late-inning heroics and broke through for a quartet of runs as the Tiger pieced together a stellar sixth inning ignited by an Ashley Applegate RBI-single. She rounded all four bases to make it 3-1 after an errant throw by JSU catcher Kaycee Crow.
Rachel Mitchell continued the charge with a base hit to right field and subsequently stole second base. Anissa Young was hit-by-a-pitch and Ashley Langoni drew a walk to load the bases for the Tigers. An infield single by Courtney Hollier drove home Mitchell and Young came around to score on a throwing error by JSU shortstop Tess Echols to push the LSU lead to 5-1.
That would be all the run support Trahan would need as she retired her last eight batters, four via the strikeout, to secure the 5-1 win.
“We mixed pitches a lot more today than Friday,” Trahan said. “Jacksonville State is a good hitting team. That’s the thing we’re going to have to work on, especially going into SEC play against more great hitters.”
Ashley Langoni blasted a walk-off solo home run on a 1-0 offering to straight-away centerfield to propel the Tigers past Houston 5-4 in game one. It was Langoni’s team-leading fifth dinger of the season.
Rachele Fico, the Tiger Invitational MVP, earned the win after firing five innings of three-hit relief. She racked up seven strikeouts and moved to 4-2 on the season.
“I saw low and outside, so I just went with it,” Langoni said. “It built my confidence up. I hadn’t been hitting all game, so it felt really good to finally get a hold of the ball at the end.”
Shortridge, who was touched up for only one earned run on a trio of hits, also contributed a multi-hit effort, a walk and scored two runs from the leadoff spot. Applegate also notched two hits and a walk in addition to driving home a crucial run to tie the game in the bottom of the sixth.
Houston took an early 1-0 lead in the first inning when Melissa Gregson platted Mary Tyler Dobson on an RBI-single.
The Tigers charged back to gain a 2-1 advantage in the third inning. Following a walk to Shortridge and a fielder’s choice by Applegate, Mitchell laced an RBI single past the shortstop into left centerfield to score Shortridge. Two batters later with the bases loaded, Applegate scored from third on a wild pitch by UH starter Amanda Crabtree.
LSU tacked on a run in the fourth to go up 3-1 after successfully executing a double steal. Shortridge led off the frame with an infield single and added a stolen base. Applegate ripped a base hit to left field to advance Shortridge to third. In the next at-bat, Applegate swiped second, and Shortridge came home on the delay steal when Gregson attempted to throw out Applegate at second.
Houston scored three runs in the top of the fifth to regain the lead at 4-3. An RBI-single by Reina Gaber brought home Katy Beth Sherman and the Cougars took advantage of a pair of errors to plate two more.
LSU showed resiliency and Applegate provided the equalizer with a RBI-single to score pinch runner Tiffany Shaw on an infield single.
Fico kept the Cougars at bay and retired nine of the last 11 batters she faced before the Langoni long ball in the ninth inning.
LSU plays host to the Purple & Gold Challenge next weekend as Campbell, South Alabama and Syracuse visit Tiger Park. Fans can follow every pitch of the tournament via live stats on LSUsports.net in addition to live in-games updates on www.twitter.com/lsu_softball.
Tiger Invitational All-Tournament Team
Rachele Fico – LSU (MVP)
Melissa Gregson – Houston
Lauren Houston – LSU
Ashleigh Jones – Houston
Chrissy O’Neal – Jacksonville State
Audrey Phillips – Southern
Nikki Prier – Jacksonville State
Kirsten Shortridge – LSU
Cody Trahan – LSU