BATON ROUGE – Meghan Patterson piped in nine strikeouts and fired a three-hit shutout as the LSU softball team opened the Purple & Gold Challenge with a 2-0 victory over Mississippi Valley State Friday at Tiger Park.
The Tigers (13-7) also notched a 6-3 win over Troy during the nightcap.
“Meghan did a nice job, and I didn’t think she had her best stuff today,” head coach Beth Torina said. “That’s a sign of a good pitcher is winning on a day when you don’t have your best stuff. That makes you very quality on the mound. I think she did a very good job today. She kept us in it the whole way, and there was never a doubt in my mind.”
Patterson allowed only two runners into scoring position as she retired 14 of the last 17 batters she faced to improve 2-0 on the season.
“Warming up, I even told Coach [Torina] that the spin wasn’t looking great on some of my pitches,” Torina said. “She just called the right pitches, knew what was working and what the batters were swinging at. They were chasing so she knew that the rise ball would be perfect. I was kind of worried at first, but I pulled through.”
LSU picked up a pair of timely hits to score its runs during the fourth and fifth innings. Ashley Langoni and Dylan Supak drew walks in-front of a Kailey McCasland two-out, RBI single for the game’s first run in the fourth. During the next frame, Allison Falcon provided another two-out, RBI single to make it 2-0.
Game 2 – LSU 6, Troy 3
LSU received a stellar pitching performance from Brittany Mack, who racked up 10 strikeouts against two walks to move to 5-4 for the season. She sprayed nine hits and was touched up for three runs, one earned.
The Tigers raced out to a 2-0 advantage behind some two-out lightning. Ashley Langoni and Juliana Santos connected a walk and a single to place runners on the corners. Santos stole second base and a throwing error by Troy catcher Kacie McAllister allowed Langoni to scoot home for the opening run. On a 1-1 offering, Supak cranked a RBI single to plate Santos and push the LSU edge to 2-0.
After Troy sliced the Tigers lead down to 2-1 in the fifth inning, the Tigers responded with a quartet of runs during the home half of the frame. A.J. Andrews chopped a leadoff single up the middle and stole second base. Two batters later, Allison Falcon belted her second career home run to right field to give LSU a 4-1 advantage.
“Coach [Howard] Dobson talked to us in between games and said something along the lines that you can’t let the pitcher get you out twice in a row on the same pitch,” Falcon said. “With the home run, I had seen that outside pitch before, and I was expecting it. I just did what needed to be done.”
Langoni and Santos followed with a single and walk to reset the table. Both came around to score on an error by Troy left fielder Sarah Harris to vault the Tigers ahead by a 6-1 margin.
Troy platted a pair of runs on LSU errors during the seventh inning, but Mack shut the door to secure the 6-3 win. The five errors by the Tigers for the game matched a program single game record.
“We definitely need to clean up the defense,” Torina said. “Of course, we need two more strong pitching performances. I also would still like to see the offense come out aggressive. It is nice to see them come out scoring in the first inning. I really like when they have that mentality, and they attack right from the beginning. I would like to see that for two more games tomorrow.”
LSU returns to action Saturday versus Troy and Mississippi Valley State. First pitch against the Trojans is slated for 1:30 p.m.
Follow every pitch of LSU softball this season via live stats on www.LSUsports.net/livestats. Fans also can receive live in-game updates on LSU softball’s social media outlets at www.Facebook.com/lsusoftball and @lsu_softball on Twitter.
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Head Coach Beth Torina
On Meghan Patterson‘s pitching performance against Mississippi Valley State …
“Meghan did a nice job, and I didn’t think she had her best stuff today. That’s a sign of a good pitcher is winning on a day when you don’t have your best stuff. That makes you very quality on the mound. I think she did a very good job today. She kept us in it the whole way, and there was never a doubt in my mind.”
On the offense …
“It was nice to get a timely hit when (Kailey) McCasland came up. I think that’s been a problem with our offense is not being able to have that timely hit so it was nice that we were able to get that today.”
On Allison Falcon‘s home run versus Troy …
“It was nice for her to get that. She has been swinging really well, and it is nice to have her back on the field. Just being out for two weeks, I think that every time she is out there she is just going to get better and better and get back to where she was before she went down.”
On five errors against Troy …
“It’s a serious problem. It is very frustrating for the entire team when we play defense like that. We have some freshmen still out there who haven’t played next to each other. I think the more we are out their together, the better we are going to get.”
On tomorrow’s games …
“We definitely need to clean up the defense. Of course, we need two more strong pitching performances. I also would still like to see the offense come out aggressive. It is nice to see them come out scoring in the first inning. I really like when they have that mentality, and they attack right from the beginning. I would like to see that for two more games tomorrow.”
Pitcher Meghan Patterson
On her performance …
“Warming up, I even told Coach [Torina] that the spin wasn’t looking great on some of my pitches. She just called the right pitches, knew what was working and what the batters were swinging at. They were chasing so she knew that the rise ball would be perfect. I was kind of worried at first, but I pulled through.”
On winning can be contagious …
“We had a total of eight runs so that was awesome. We haven’t had a lot of high scoring games so that definitely boost up the confidence. You can tell that everyone is starting to get hits, and we are putting it together.”
On keeping the momentum going …
“We play the same two teams we did today so we know what they got. Troy and Mississippi Valley State are both pretty good teams so we can’t underestimate them. We definitely just have to go one game at a time, can’t look too far ahead and just keep up the good work.”
Second Baseman Allison Falcon
On how important it was to continue momentum from mid-week …
“Softball is such a game of momentum, and I am very happy that we have this great win streak going on into this weekend. Hopefully, we will get a couple more wins out of it.”
On hitting the home run …
“Coach [Howard] Dobson talked to us in-between games and said something along the lines that you can’t let the pitcher get you out twice in a row on the same pitch. With the home run, I had seen that outside pitch before, and I was expecting it. I just did what needed to be done.”
On winning two more tomorrow …
“We definitely can’t take either of these two teams lightly. They both played with great effort. They battled hard and that the kind of competition we are looking for.”
On the five errors and what the defense needs to do to fix it …
“Defensively, I think we are playing too safe. We aren’t being as aggressive as we should. We are over thinking everything and playing on our heels. We really need to be a little more aggressive with the plays, and if you are aggressive then you are more likely to make the play.”