BATON ROUGE — The fifth-ranked LSU Tigers pounded out 10 hits to complete the three-game sweep of Ole Miss with a score of 11-1 in five innings on Sunday in Tiger Park, as five seniors played their last home game.
The LSU sweep coupled with a pair of Alabama losses at South Carolina gave the Tigers at least a share of the Southeastern Conference regular-season title with three games left to play next weekend against Auburn. Should LSU win one of the three-game series, the Tigers will win the SEC.
“This was a great game for the five seniors,” said head coach Yvette Girouard. “It was a good day out for all of them. They all had hits and produced, and Ashley picked up the win. This was a good exclamation point to our home schedule.”
Dee Douglas, Stephanie Hastings, Ashley Lewis, Jennifer Schuelke and Auburne Ziober were honored before their last start Sunday in Tiger Park. They were given action pictures of themselves and presented to the Tiger fans with their families.
The Tigers improved to 47-8 overall and 24-4 in the Southeastern Conference. Ole Miss falls to 18-39 overall and 5-22 in the SEC. Alabama finished the season with a record of 24-6 in the SEC, after dropping two games to South Carolina. The Tigers have to win one game next weekend to win their third out right SEC championship.
Ole Miss jumped ahead in the first inning when Amanda Lehotak drew a walk, and Jennifer Poore doubled to left field to send home the runner.
But LSU answered back quickly in the bottom of the inning. Dee Douglas led off with a single to second base for her eighth hit in a row for the series. April Janzen followed with a blast over the left field fence to put LSU ahead 2-1. Trena Peel then singled to center field to send home Stephanie Hastings who doubled to reach base.
The Tigers picked up four more runs on four hits in the third. Janzen led off with a double up the middle, and Hastings drew a walk. Christy Connor then hit her fourth home run of the season to put LSU up 6-1. Senior Auburne Ziober singled up the middle to knock in Peel.
Peel singled to right field in the bottom of the fourth to score Janzen. Julie Wiese hit a sacrifice fly to right field that allowed pinch runner Sara Fitzgerald to score. Peel also scored on the play when the right fielder overthrew third. Schuelke then singled up the middle to score Johnson and put an exclamation point on the win.
Senior Ashley Lewis picked up her 17 win of the season with her 13th complete game. She allowed only two hits, walked three and struck out one.
April Janzen went two-for-two with her fourth home run and her seventh double with three runs and two RBI. Peel was also two-for-two with two runs and two RBI. Peel now has a nine game hitting streak, followed closely by Hastings who has an eighth game streak.
The Tigers will travel to Auburn, Ala. on Saturday and Sunday for the final SEC series against the Auburn Tigers.