COLUMBUS, Ga. — A second-inning home run by Ashley Lewis was all the support she needed in the circle as the seventh-ranked LSU Tigers won, 2-0, over Arkansas at the Southeastern Conference Tournament here Friday at South Commons Stadium.
The Tigers with the win advances to the bracket championship game Saturday night at 7 p.m. CDT against the winner of the Mississippi State-Alabama elimination game which is set for 1 p.m. LSU would need only one win to advance to the tournament championship game on Sunday afternoon.
South Carolina is in the same position in the other bracket after upsetting second seed Alabama, 4-1, earlier in the day. Arkansas with the loss to LSU, goes to the other bracket and will face Florida in an 11 a.m. elimination game to decide who faces USC in the bracket championship.
The LSU game Saturday evening will be broadcast on the LSU Sports Network (107.3 FM in Baton Rouge and on the internet at www.LSUsports.net) and the entire day’s play will be televised live on College Sports Southeast (Cable Channel 18 in Baton Rouge).
In the elimination games earlier in the day, Eastern Division champion Kentucky was eliminated in two straight, losing to Florida, 2-0, and Mississippi State stayed alive with a 9-3 win over Auburn in a game which featured a grand slam home run by Carrie Moreman.
LSU and Arkansas met last year in this same round in the tournament with LSU a five-inning 10-0 winner. But the Tigers coming off the 8-0 spanking of Auburn Thursday night, couldn’t get the offense cranked up as much against veteran Arkansas hurler Tammy Kincaid.
Dee Douglas led off the game with a walk and would get to third on a couple of ground outs, but Ashlee Ducote grounded out to the pitcher to end the inning.
It was in the second with one out that Lewis came up to the plate. Kincaid threw her three balls and then grooved one, but instead of taking it, Lewis was swinging away and blasted one on a line over the left field fence to give LSU all the runs it would need.
“A lot of coaches would usually have the take on,” said Lewis after the game. “But all year if he (Moore) is confident enough in you at that time he’ll said if you get your pitch, don’t take it. It wasn’t right down the middle, because (Kincaid) is a good pitcher and no way is she going to put it right down the middle. But it was a good pitch to hit. If I hadn’t of done it, some one else would have stepped up and done it.”
The Tigers would get an insurance run in the sixth inning when Stephanie Hastings doubled to left field with one out, advanced to third on a ground out and scored on Ashlee Ducote’s infield single. Ducote rolled one to the right side of the infield and second baseman Erin Stokey dove for the ball, had it in her glove, but the ball rolled away allowing Ducote to reach and drive in the run.
“It was a war,” said LSU Coach Glenn Moore. “The girls on both teams were going all out. Kincaid pitched a great game. I thought we stayed disciplined in the batter box and were able to get a big hit by Ashley. I have a lot of respect for Arkansas and how these two teams played this evening.”
Lewis in the circle would record her 21st victory in 24 decisions, but the game was not her prettiest, especially in the early going. Arkansas would have a runner as far as second each of the first three innings, but LSU would keep itself out of trouble thanks to strong defensive plays. Twice Ducote would get the lead runner out at second on sacrifice attempts by Arkansas and Trena Peel, backing up a play, would get a runner thrown out at second after an overthrow on an infield error.
“You can sense the confidence they are playing with,” said Moore. “There is no hesitation to go to second on the bunt. It definitely held them at bay. Both sides made some great defensive plays.”
Lewis would settle in to retire nine of the final 10 Arkansas batters, allowing just a scratch single in the sixth inning as LSU won its sixth consecutive tournament game dating back to last year.