LAKE CHARLES, La. – Juliana Santos blasted a three-run home run to jumpstart the No. 12 LSU softball team, while Kirsten Shortridge fired four scoreless frames of relief as the Tigers notched a 7-2 victory over McNeese State Wednesday in front of a program-record 853 fans at Cowgirl Diamond.
LSU (29-4) pushed the nation’s longest winning streak to 24 games. The streak also moved into third place in school history behind only the 1996-97 baseball and 1980-81 men’s basketball squads.
“We always expect to get everyone’s best shot and credit to McNeese for jumping on us early,” head coach Yvette Girouard said. “Kirsten was phenomenal and looked extremely strong in the circle. It’s been a hard luck year for Juliana [with injuries]. She’s battled everything and it was good to get her an opportunity to swing the bat well heading into this critical stretch.”
Ashley Applegate and Rachel Mitchell opened the third inning with back-to-back singles. Three batters later, Santos made an instant impact after missing the last four games due to injury and connected on a 3-1 offering for a three-run homer to turn a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 advantage.
“It’s been a long season for me,” Santos said. “It felt good to get back out there, and I finally got a break at the plate. I was very overanxious during my first at-bat so I wanted to relax when I got another chance. Coach [Girouard] always talks about playing within yourself and that’s what I did.”
The Tigers pushed their lead to 4-2 on a Shortridge sacrifice fly during the fourth inning. LSU tacked on a trio of insurance runs in the fifth as Courtney Hollier, Lauren Houston and Shortridge notched RBIs for the final margin of 7-2.
Shortridge picked up the win to improve to 3-0 on the season. She tossed four innings of no-hit ball in her first pitching action since Feb. 28 and picked up six strikeouts against four walks.
“It’s easy to pitch with our great defense playing behind me,” Shortridge said. “It felt good to get the rust off. I wanted to work on placing the ball where it needed to be during certain counts.”
McNeese State jumped out to a 2-0 edge on a Liz Morvant two-run homer to left field that crept just past the outstretched glove of Ashley Langoni in the in the first inning.
LSU continues its seven-game road swing with a weekend series at No. 6 Florida. All three games will be broadcasted live on ESPN Radio 104.5 and The X 104.9 FM in the Baton Rouge area with Patrick Wright and Matt Dunaway set to call all of the action.
Live stats also are available in the Geaux Zone on LSUSports.net along with live in-game updates via www.twitter.com/lsu_softball.