FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The No. 17 LSU softball team gave head coach Yvette Girouard the best birthday gift of all as Cody Trahan fired a complete game to push the Tigers to a 9-1 victory over No. 5 Florida Friday in the SEC Tournament Semifinals at Bogle Park on the University of Arkansas campus.
In the process, the Tigers (44-13) snapped a nine-game losing skid to Florida (43-8) dating back to the 2007 SEC Tournament Championship game. It also ended the Gators seven-game SEC Tournament winning streak.
LSU will be looking for its SEC-best sixth tournament championship in its ninth title game appearances and faces No. 3 Alabama in Saturday’s championship game at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN with Beth Mowins, Jessica Mendoza and Michele Smith anchoring the coverage.
“This is a very proud program and there’s no doubt we’ve taken our lumps against Florida during the last three seasons,” head coach Yvette Girouard said. “We’ve still won the most SEC championships and I challenged our players to remember that when they put the uniform on today. I’m happy that our team took that message to heart and proud that LSU will back on championship Saturday.”
Trahan kept the high-octane Gators out of rhythm and was touched up for only one run on four hits. She also added four strikeouts against three walks to improve to 13-4 on the season. The Little Cypress, Texas native has now registered wins against every SEC team during her career.
Kirsten Shortridge racked up a 3-for-5 effort with two RBIs and provided a solo home run, her second dinger in as many days, after being held without a long ball during the regular season.
Morgan Russell also belted her first career home run during the third inning. Courtney Hollier, Jessica Mouse and Juliana Santos tacked on RBIs of their own as every LSU player in the starting lineup reached base and the Tigers erupted for eight runs during the first four frames.
“Our offense has been magnificent with two outs and Cody did a wonderful job of hitting her spots,” Girouard said. “She was in the right zones and threw in the right plains, which made her extremely effective. It was a great day all-around for the Tigers.”
The Tigers were clicking on all cylinders as Shortridge and Ashley Applegate registered back-to-back singles to start the first inning. A throwing error by UF shortstop Megan Bush allowed the runners to move into scoring position.
Ashley Langoni followed with a walk to load the bases. After an Anissa Young ground out forced Shortridge out at the plate, Juliana Santos coaxed another free pass to give LSU a 1-0 edge. An illegal pitch on Gator ace Stephanie Brombacher allowed Applegate to cross the plate for a 2-0 lead.
Florida put two runners on the first inning, but Trahan thwarted the rally by getting Bush to strike out looking. That opened a stretch of eight of nine batters retired by Trahan.
“The key was mixing pitches up and Morgan did a great job of getting into position to frame the pitches,” Trahan said. “These are the types of games we’re going to have to win going forward if we want to get where we want to go. The offense did an excellent job, they took a lot of weight off my shoulders. All I had to do was hit my spots. This win is big for my confidence to finish all seven innings.”
Russell laced her first career homer to left centerfield to open the second inning before the Tigers batted around the lineup en route to a trio of runs in the third inning. Hollier was issued a bases loaded walk, while Mouse and Shortridge ripped RBI-singles to make it 6-0.
LSU added a pair of unearned runs in the fourth inning aided by two Gator errors. Russell picked up her fifth multi-RBI effort of the season with a RBI-single to extend the advantage to 8-0.
“It meant everything to jump on them early,” Girouard said. “Two years ago, we couldn’t touch the plate against Florida. They have been so dominant. I thought we pitch well, but we didn’t get key hits with runners in scoring position when we played them earlier this season. Today, they made the uncharacteristic plays.”
Bush knocked a solo home run for Florida’s only in the bottom of the frame. Brombacher was tagged with the loss and surrendered four runs on three hits over 2.1 innings of work to drop to 29-6.
Saturday’s title game will be broadcasted live on ESPN 104.5 and The X 104.9 FM in the Baton Rouge area with Patrick Wright and Matt Dunaway set to call all the action. Live stats also are available in the Geaux Zone on LSUsports.net along with live in-game updates via http://twitter.com/lsu_softball.