BATON ROUGE – Rachel Mitchell capped a 3-for-3 performance with a two run home run in the sixth inning as the No. 14 LSU softball team completed a weekend sweep en route to a 4-0 triumph over Auburn Sunday at Tiger Park in front of 1,031 fans.
LSU (26-4, 8-0 SEC) won its 21 consecutive game and matched its best start in SEC play under head coach Yvette Girouard joining the 2008 squad at 8-0.
The Tigers also rode the right-arm of Rachele Fico in the circle. The Connecticut native tossed a six-hitter and registered five strikeouts to move to 10-2 on the season. Fico has now won nine consecutive decisions since opening weekend.
“It wasn’t a pleasant day to play softball,” Girouard said. “Sometimes, it’s like surviving instead of playing the game. I’m really proud of the Tigers and extremely impressed with the fans. I want to thank them for that. It was good that Rachele came out, got a win and the shut out which was our goal for the day. We had some good clutch hitting. We hit the ball hard all day long but just didn’t have any eyes. To Auburn’s credit, they made a ton of great plays.”
Auburn’s (16-12, 2-6 SEC) Angel Bunner was tagged with all four runs, one earned, on eight hits in 5.2 innings of work to fall to 6-5.
With the game scoreless in the fourth inning, Auburn broke up Fico’s bid at a perfect on a Caitlin Stangl leadoff single. She moved to second base on a sacrifice bunt and attempted to score on an Amber Harrison single to left field. Mitchell fired a rocket to the plate where Morgan Russell was waiting to slap the tag on Stangl at the plate to keep the game tied at 0-0.
Mitchell turned her solid defense into a leadoff double down the left field line in the fifth inning. An Anissa Young single put runners on the corners before Courtney Hollier lifted a sacrifice fly to left centerfield to give LSU a 1-0 edge.
Auburn threatened and filled the bases with one out in the sixth inning. Fico dug deep and forced a pair of pop-ups on the infield to secure the 1-0 lead.
“I had to bear down in that situation,” Fico said. “I took advantage of the cold weather and was jamming in the inside. I knew my teammates were going to make plays behind me. It’s been said time and time again that our team has awesome chemistry; we can’t stress it enough. It really makes a difference on and off the field.”
LSU tacked on three insurance runs in the home half of the frame. With two outs, Kirsten Shortridge reached on a fielding error to extend the inning. After stealing second base, Shortridge came around to score on an Ashley Applegate RBI-double. Mitchell finished the two-out rally in-style and belted the first pitch over the fence to straight-away centerfield for the final margin of 4-0.
“I knew in my mind she was going to work me inside a lot,” Mitchell said. “I was looking for that one specific pitch, and she just happened to throw it to me. I made sure my foot was down on time and I got it out of here.”
LSU steps out of SEC action Tuesday to take on Nicholls State in a rescheduled contest from March 10. Season ticket holders are asked to use their original tickets at the gate for admission.
First pitch is slated for 6 p.m. against the Colonels. Live stats are available on LSUsports.com in addition to live in-game updates on www.twitter.com/lsu_softball.
LSU Head Coach Yvette Girouard
On sweeping Auburn…
“It wasn’t a pleasant day to play softball. Sometimes, it’s like surviving instead of playing the game. I’m really proud of the Tigers and extremely impressed with the fans. I want to thank them for that. It was good that Rachele Fico came out, got a win and the shut out which was our goal for the day. We had some good clutch hitting. We hit the ball hard all day long but just didn’t have any eyes. To Auburn’s credit, they made a ton of great plays.”
On two-out lightning in the sixth inning…
“I think (Kirsten) Shortridge was frustrated from being shut out on base. I told her to use her aggression to ground it. (Rachel) Mitchell swung the bat early, and it paid off. She was aggressive instead of passive.”
On importance of sweeping Auburn at home…
“It was really important that we came out and swept Auburn. They’re a great team, but we are going to face a lot more competition on the road later in SEC play. We need to beat everybody we can as much as possible and keep our spirits up.”
On her two-run home run in the sixth inning…
“I knew in my mind she was going to work me inside a lot. I was looking for that one specific pitch, and she just happened to throw it to me. I made sure my foot was down on time and I got it out of here.”
On importance completing sweep against Auburn…
“It was really important to sweep Auburn. We came in here and played well. At the beginning of the game, we were hitting some really hard balls but hitting those balls right at their fielders. I thought we really came out and shut them down in the last inning.”
On forcing two fly-outs to stop Auburn’s momentum…
“I had to bear down in that situation. I took advantage of the cold weather and was jamming in the inside. I knew my teammates were going to make plays behind me.”
On LSU’s momentum…
“It’s been said time and time again that our team has awesome chemistry; we can’t stress it enough. It really makes a difference on and off the field. We all really mesh well together. We’re all there for each other.”
On importance of keeping Auburn to zero runs in the seventh inning…
“We had a nice little cushion of runs in the seventh. It really relaxes you to be able to play with run support.”