BATON ROUGE — A one-hitter by All-American Britni Sneed led the fifth-ranked Tiger softball team to a 4-1 Southeastern Conference series sweep of No. 21 Georgia on Easter Sunday afternoon at Tiger Park.
The Tigers, who now hit the road for a six-game road trip to Fayetteville, Ark., and Tuscaloosa, Ala., improve to 27-7 overall and 12-2 in the SEC. Georgia falls to 37-8 overall and 7-8 in the SEC.
“It is hard to beat any team three times,” said LSU head coach Yvette Girouard. “We have an epidemic of leaving people on base and we did it again today, but what matters is that we got to play and we came away with the sweep. There is no place like home and now we need to keep the momentum going when we hit the road.”
The game, scheduled to start at 11 a.m., was delayed to a 1:15 p.m. start time due to heavy rain in the Baton Rouge area Saturday night and Sunday morning.
“The game ball definitely goes to the grounds crew today,” said Girouard. “We are already a half game behind Alabama in the SEC West because of a rainout at Tennessee and we need to play every game this season. The ground crew did an incredible job getting the field ready to play this afternoon.”
Sneed picked up the complete-game win to improve her record to 15-4 overall and 9-0 in SEC play. For the game, she struck out nine batters while allowing only one unearned run on one hit with one walk. Lacey Gardner earned the loss for Georgia to fall to 16-5 on the season.
Despite not recording a base hit, the Tigers took advantage of three Georgia errors in the first to jump out to a 2-0 lead. Trena Peel reached first on an error by the Bulldog second baseman to lead off the inning. After advancing to second on a sacrifice bunt by April Janzen, Christy Connor reached on an error by the first baseman.
With runners at first and second with one out, Peel advanced to third on a passed ball. Megann Steege was thrown out by the third baseman and Connor advanced to second. After intentionally walking Julie Wiese to load the bases, Peel and Connor scored as Leigh Ann Danos reached after the Bulldog pitcher Lacey Gardner threw the ball into right field.
Georgia got on the board in the top of the fourth inning. Leadoff batter Nicole Barber reached on an error by Janzen and stole second. She advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Katie Lewis. After Kim Wendland fouled out to Weise at third, Barber scored on a single to left field by Shannon McKeon.
LSU finally got its first hit of the game in the bottom of the fourth inning when Reeves singled up the middle.
The Tigers added a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth inning. With two outs, Danos doubled into left centerfield. Sara Fitzgerald, pinch running for Danos, scored as Blair Smith singled down the right field line and advanced to second.
Erin Johnson came in to pinch hit for Reeves and drew a walk and Smith advanced to third as ball four got away from the catcher. Reeves then scored on a wild pitch to run the score to 4-1, where it would remain.
Sneed would get a ground out and strike out a pair in the bottom of the seventh to ensure the win.
The Tigers now hit the road to face Western Division rival Arkansas in a three-game series in Fayetteville, Ark. The series begins with a doubleheader on Tuesday at 6 p.m. and concludes with a single game on Wednesday at 6 p.m.
LSU then travels to Tuscaloosa, Ala., to face Western Division-leading Alabama in a three-game series. The series begins with a doubleheader on Saturday at 1 p.m. and finishes with a single game on Sunday at 1 p.m. The series finale will be broadcast on SEC-TV, in Baton Rouge on Fox Sports Southwest, Cox cable channel 37.