BATON ROUGE, La. – After being held scoreless and hitless in the first two innings, the No. 3 LSU softball team came to life in a big way, plating 13 runs in the third inning alone to power past the Connecticut Huskies to the tune of a 13-2 win in five innings Saturday afternoon in the first game for the team Saturday in the Tiger Classic.
The Tigers (3-0) nearly batted around twice in the frame alone, earning six of their eight hits in the frame and using two errors by the Huskies (1-3) to keep the scoring going as LSU sent 17 batters to the plate over the course of the marathon inning.
Six LSU players finished the game with hits, led by junior Sahvanna Jaquish who drove in six in the contest, drilling a double but saving her best for later that inning as she hit the team’s second grand slam of the weekend, scoring twice.
In her first LSU start, local freshman Elyse Thornhill made the most of her debut by drilling two doubles for both of her hits with two RBIs and a run scored. Kellsi Kloss, Sandra Simmons, Amber Serrett and Constance Quinn each drove in runs on the day, with Bailey Landry, Emily Griggs and Quinn all scoring twice.
In her first start of the season, junior Baylee Corbello went the distance and allowed a pair of runs on just five hits with three walks and a strikeout. She threw 77 pitches in the game, with 43 for strikes.
After struggling through the first two innings, the third opened with an out for the sixth consecutive batter, but it would be the last one for a while as Thornhill came back with a scorching double to right to take her base. Quinn drew a walk to put two on, as the pressure started to build for the visiting Huskies.
A fielding error on a dropped fly ball in left field resulted in a bases loaded opportunity for the Tigers, as another error on a throw from the pitcher was high to allow Thornhill to score to make it 1-0 LSU. On the very next play, Jaquish blasted a double to center driving in Landry and Quinn to make it 3-0.
After a pitching change, a walk to Bianka Bell loaded the bases for LSU, as two runs came in right after with a Kloss walk and Simmons hit by pitch to make it 5-0, which prompted UConn to make its second pitching change of the inning.
Serrett came back up to bat and singled up the middle of the infield to score Bell to make it 6-0. Just like her first at-bat, Thornhill stepped up again and doubled to left to score Simmons and Kloss to give LSU an eight-run advantage. Quinn followed suit with a bloop single down the right field line to score Serrett to make it 9-0 LSU.
A walk to Landry put two back on for LSU, as a fielder’s choice forced out Thornhill at home for the second out of the inning. Although the Tigers didn’t score then, all it did was set the table for Jaquish who to took three straight pitches and on the fourth pounced and sent it to the highest level of the terrace for the grand slam to cap the inning with the 13-0 lead.
The Huskies got on the board in the very next inning, getting a leadoff home run to make it 13-1 LSU leading. Corbello would have some work to do to get out of the inning, as she would get the next two batters to go down in order, dished out two walks and hit a batter to load the bases. Fortunately, the next batter grounded out to third to end the frame without further damage.
Although Pacific would plate another run in the final frame, the lead would never be in doubt as the Tigers shut the door and preserved the victory.
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