BATON ROUGE — Britni Sneed hurled her ninth shutout of the year to lift the sixth-ranked LSU Tiger softball team to a 5-0 shutout of the Arkansas Lady’Backs in Tiger Park on Wednesday night.
“This was more like the Tiger team we know and love,” said head coach Yvette Girouard. “This a team that we desperately need to show up for the
weekend with Alabama.”
“Once again, Britni Sneed was in complete control. Stephanie Hastings also had an awesome series. April Janzen came out with a bang for us in the first, so we had nice efforts from different people tonight. We need the same emotion this weekend for this show down because it not only has SEC implications, but also national implications and regional host site implications.”
LSU improves to 32-7 overall and 12-3 in the Southeastern Conference. Arkansas falls to 21-22 overall and 6-9 in the SEC.
April Janzen battled for a triple to right field in the bottom of the first inning to set the stage for Stephanie Hastings who followed with a double to right center to send Janzen home.
LSU added four runs to the tally on four hits and an Arkansas error in the fourth inning. Hastings led the Tigers off with a double and scored on a single by Ashley Lewis. Trena Peel singled through the right side to send pinch runner Auburne Ziober home, and Jennifer Schuelke singled to left field to pick up two RBI as Peel and Lewis each scored.
Sneed allowed just two hits in the win to improve to 20-4 overall. She had eight strikeouts and walked two.
The Tigers had eight hits off Arkansas pitchers Rachell Talley and Heather Schlichtman. Hastings was three-for-three on the night and hit her 11th double of the season. Janzen hit her first triple of the year.
The game will be broadcast by the Pelican Sports Network on cable channel 18 at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Thursday.
Now LSU prepares for a showdown with No. 3 Alabama on Saturday and Sunday in Tiger Park. Saturday’s double header will begin at 4 p.m., and Sunday’s game begins at 1 p.m. Free tickets to Sunday’s game are available at all area Winn Dixie stores.