STARKVILLE, Miss – Anissa Young cranked a two-run home run during the first inning, while Brittany Mack racked up 10 strikeouts to fuel the No. 21 LSU softball team to a 3-1 triumph and a series sweep of Mississippi State Sunday at the MSU Softball Field.
In the process, LSU (33-15, 16-9 SEC) won its 20th game during its last 23 outings dating back to March 19. The Tigers also won their 17th straight contest over Mississippi State (23-29, 9-16 SEC) since 2005.
LSU raced out to a 2-0 advantage in the first inning. With one out, Juliana Santos smacked a triple down the left field line. The next batter, Young, connected for a two-run blast over the left centerfield fence on a 1-1 offering. It was Young’s team-leading ninth dinger, and 11th multi-RBI performance of the season. The Tigers have gone 15-1 this season when posting a first-inning run.
“We had an offensive plan and executed it the entire weekend,” Young said. “It’s always good to start the game off with a couple of runs. I know we talk about getting early runs for our pitchers all the time. On the home run, I was trying to see something up in the zone and get a barrel on it. She [MSU pitcher Stephanie Becker] didn’t give me much. I just sat back and made good contact.”
That would be more than enough run support for Mack, who sat down 18 of the first 22 batters she faced. The junior right-hander was touched up for one run on three hits and recorded 10 strikeouts against one walk to improve to 16-5 on the season. She has picked up at least seven Ks during eight of her last 10 starts going back to April 2.
“It was a phenomenal start to the game for us,” head coach Yvette Girouard said. “Juliana really hustled out of the box to get that triple, and Anissa crushed the ball to send a statement right away. Mack threw magnificently, was in total control and got out of a little trouble during that last inning. She did a wonderful job of baffling their hitters for a third straight day. I thought all of her nasty stuff was working and it’s extremely tough to hit when it works on all cylinders like that.”
The Tigers added an insurance run during the seventh inning. Morgan Russell ripped a leadoff single followed by a Jacee Blades double. Two batters later, Simone Heyward connected for a sacrifice fly to plate pinch runner Cassie Trosclair to make it 3-0.
MSU took advantage of a walk, a single and a wild pitch to send the tying to the plate in the home half of the frame. Chelsea Raines collected a RBI ground out before Mack secured the 3-1 victory with a fly ball.
“That insurance run really helped us,” Girouard said. “Like in basketball, you know the home team is going to make a run at some point. I had a feeling that Mississippi State wasn’t going to have goose eggs on the board for all seven innings, but Mack made the big pitches to finish them off.”
LSU concludes the non-conference slate with a Tuesday tilt at Southeastern Louisiana. First pitch is slated for 6 p.m. at North Oak Park and live stats are available in the Geaux Zone on LSUsports.net.
In-game updates are provided via the program’s social media pages at www.Facebook.com/lsusoftball and www.Twitter.com/LSU_Softball.