BATON ROUGE – Kendall Bruning tossed her fourth shutout of the season as Ole Miss claimed a 1-0 decision over the No. 23 LSU softball team Sunday during the series finale of a SEC weekend series at Tiger Park.
Ole Miss (17-28, 4-18 SEC) scored the game’s only run during the sixth inning. Brittany Broome knocked a leadoff triple into the right centerfield gap and came around to score on Allison Brown’s RBI groundout.
LSU (32-15, 13-7 SEC) attempted to rally in the home half of the frame. Pinch hitter Simone Heyward chopped a leadoff single in-front of the pitching circle and advanced to second base on Morgan Russell sacrifice bunt.
Two batters later, pinch hitter Kailey McCasland coaxed a four-pitch walk. The rally ended when Ashley Langoni flew out followed by a Juliana Santos ground out on consecutive pitches.
“Obviously, our offense has to do a better job at making adjustments,” head coach Beth Torina said. “Kendall Bruning threw a good game today, sometimes it happens. There are days where you just don’t have your best game and a kid on the other team is just better that day.”
Rachele Fico suffered the tough-luck loss for the Tigers and dropped to 15-7 for the season. She earned five strikeouts versus three walks and pulled to within 12 Ks of reaching 500 for her career. In her seven setbacks, the junior right-hander has received only three runs of support.
“We know we are better than that,” Fico said. “We know that we were supposed to come out and perform better as a whole today. This isn’t going to dictate our season. We are going bounce back and keep fighting. We are going to make some adjustments and be better in our next game.”
Bruning carried a no-hitter one out into the fifth inning before Tammy Wray‘s bid for a home run fell inches short and bounced off the yellow tubing atop the left field wall.
Pinch runner Alex Boulet was inserted into the game and stole second base. She scooted over to third base on Russell’s ground out to the right side of the Ole Miss infield. With Dylan Supak at the plate, Boulet attempted a delayed steal of home plate. However, Bruning alertly threw the ball to the catcher for the final out of the frame.
The 1-0 victory enabled Bruning to improve to 13-14 on the season as the Rebels ended their 10-game losing streak.
“I didn’t think there was any reason to beat them up about it because they already feel bad enough,” Torina said. “What we are going to do next is prepare for Florida. I guess what our plan is going forward from here with practicing tomorrow and know the adjustments we need to make to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Prior to the game, children from the Miracle League Association and Baton Rouge schools joined Brittany Mack as her VIP guests as part of “Geaux Play” day at the park. The children were welcomed onto the field with a standing ovation from the 1,645 fans in the crowd.
Throughout the entire season at LSU softball home games, fans have brought new/gently used sporting equipment to donate to the Miracle League Association. Afterwards, the special needs children joined the Tigers on the field for a game.
LSU returns to action for a Tuesday doubleheader versus SEC frontrunner and No. 3 Florida. First pitch is on-tap for 4 p.m. CDT and both games will be televised by CSS along with ESPN3.com with Bernie Guenther and Cheri Kempf serving as the announcing team.
Live audio and live stats also are available inside the Geaux Zone on LSUsports.net. The game also will be carried live Country Legends 104.9 FM in the Baton Rouge area with Patrick Wright and Matt Dunaway set to call the action.
Fans can follow every pitch of LSU softball this season via live in-game updates on LSU softball’s social media outlets at www.Facebook.com/lsusoftball and @lsu_softball on Twitter.
Softball Postgame Quotes
No. 23 LSU vs. Ole Miss – April 22, 2012
Head Coach Beth Torina
On the game …
“Obviously, our offense has to do a better job at making adjustments. Kendall Bruning threw a good game today, sometimes it happens. There are days where you just don’t have your best game and a kid on the other team is just better that day.”
On her postgame message to the team …
“I didn’t think there was any reason to beat them up about it because they already feel bad enough. What we are going to do next is prepare for Florida. I guess what our plan is going forward from here with practicing tomorrow and know the adjustments we need to make to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
On what the team will practice on tomorrow in preparation for Florida …
“They bring a good speed game and a ton of offense. Our pitching staff will be ready for them, and they have a really good solid pitcher on the mound in Hannah Rogers. We are going to have to prepare for her with the things she throws as well as their offense.”
On Alex Boulet‘s attempt to steal home …
“She does a good job at trying to create things all over the place so I am not going to question a kid trying to do something that was an aggressive mistake. We talked about it before she did it. If she had an opening, she was going to try to do it. I was okay with the decision. It didn’t work out, and I’m not going to say we won’t ever do it again.”
Pitcher Rachele Fico
On her performance …
“Ole Miss scored late in the game, and we weren’t able to come back from it today. We have another big week ahead of us. We have a great team, and we can play better as a whole. We really need to go back to work tomorrow at practice, make some adjustments and keep fighting.”
On Coach Torina’s postgame message …
“We know we are better than that. We know that we were supposed to come out and perform better as whole today. This isn’t going to dictate our season. We are going bounce back and keep fighting. We are going to make some adjustments and be better in our next game.”
On facing Florida …
“Florida is always a great opponent. We need to give it our all and bring our ‘A’ game.”