FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The No. 17 LSU softball team erased a 4-0 deficit with a quartet of runs in the fifth inning but Jazlyn Lunceford knocked a solo home run in the home half of the frame to vault No. 4 Alabama to a 5-4 victory for the SEC Tournament Championship as 1,510 fans gathered Saturday at Bogle Park on the University of Arkansas campus.
LSU (44-14) made its league-best ninth title game appearance, while the Crimson Tide (48-9) won their third tournament crown to secure the SEC’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers will await an at-large berth into the Field of 64 Sunday at 9 p.m. as ESPN U will air the NCAA Selection Show.
Kelsi Dunne, the SEC Pitcher of the Year, retired six of the final seven batters she faced and improved to 27-4 on the season. She allowed four runs on five hits and notched nine strikeouts against two walks en route to Tournament MVP honors.
LSU received six strong frames of relief from SEC Co-Freshman of the Year Rachele Fico, who was touched up for only two solo homers from Lunceford and Jennifer Fenton. She recorded four strikeouts but dropped to 19-6 with the loss.
“I thought our team showed a lot of heart during the tournament. We scratched, clawed, fought and never gave up. It didn’t happen for us,” head coach Yvette Girouard said. “Congratulations to Alabama, they played a great game. It’s always a hard-fought game when we play them. I told the team after that we just battled two fabulous programs in Alabama and Florida so this should prepare us for what we hope is the next three weeks of competition.”
Down 4-0, Jessica Mouse ignited the Tigers during the fifth inning with a one-out single to centerfield on a 15-pitch at-bat. She fouled off 11 offerings in the sequence to turn a 0-2 count to full.
“My approach was to try and get something started for the top of the lineup,” Mouse said. “We have capable All-American players behind me. I wanted to do whatever I could to get on-base.”
After Kirsten Shortridge was hit-by-a-pitch, Scott Brians was inserted as the new home plate umpire after a six-minute delay as Pat Lyon was injured on the play.
Ashley Applegate cranked a RBI-single to put LSU on the board before Rachel Mitchell ripped a two-run double into the left centerfield gap to pull the Tigers back to 4-3.
“It’s really important for us to get hits when we have runners in scoring position,” Mitchell said. “There are times this season when that’s been lacking for us, but Coach Girouard always tells us to crush the mistake. I was happy to help our team with that hit.”
Ashley Langoni coaxed a walk and Anissa Young was plunked to load the bases. Juliana Santos provided the equalizer with a RBI-ground out to knot the score at 4-4.
“We took the mentality that delays are good for us,” Girouard said. “I thought we really had a shot with them on the ropes and all the momentum in our dugout. The positive thing for us is that we showed toughness in critical situations and didn’t give up when we were behind. Those are things that are going to help in NCAA postseason games.”
Alabama started fast with a three-run first inning fueled by a Kayla Braud bunt single and stolen base. She came around to score the game’s first run on a pair of wild pitches and turned in a 3-for-4 performance with three steals.
Walks to Cassie Reilly-Boccia and Whitney Lawson sandwiched around a Charlotte Morgan single loaded the bases for the Crimson Tide.
Girouard turned to Fico out of the bullpen, who immediately got Amanda Locke to strike out. Mouse followed with a stellar snag of a Lunceford line drive and alertly fired home to force Reilly-Boccia out at the plate.
The Connecticut native was poised to get out of the jam without further damage, but Alex Blewitt connected for a bloop single just out of the reach of Tiger shortstop Courtney Hollier to extend the Alabama edge to 3-0.
LSU jammed the bases full with one out in the fourth inning, but Dunne got Santos to foul out coupled with a Hollier strike out to escape the threat. Fenton added a solo dinger to make it 4-0 after four frames.
All of LSU’s postseason games will be broadcasted live on ESPN 104.5 and The X 104.9 FM in the Baton Rouge area with Patrick Wright and Kent Lowe set to call all the action. Live stats also will be available in the Geaux Zone on LSUsports.net along with in-game updates via http://twitter.com/lsu_softball.
2010 SEC All-Tournament Team
Megan Bush, SS, Florida
Corrie Brooks, 3B, Florida
Kelly Grieve, CF, Tennessee
Ivy Renfroe, P, Tennessee
Cody Trahan, P, LSU
Jessica Mouse, 3B, LSU
Kirsten Shortridge, CF, LSU
Jennifer Fenton, CF, Alabama
Whitney Larsen, SS, Alabama
Kayla Braud, 2B, Alabama
Kelsi Dunne, P, Alabama
MVP: Kelsi Dunne, Alabama