BATON ROUGE — LSU’s Emily Turner and Jazz Jackson were named the Southeastern Conference Pitcher and Freshman of the Week, respectively, it was announced by the league office on Monday.
A senior All-American from Chula Vista, Calif., Turner went 2-0 on the week with a save. The right-handed pitcher threw her first collegiate no-hitter against Arkansas on Saturday. The seven inning no-no was the first for the Tigers in conference play since Britni Sneed no-hit Ole Miss in 2002.
In the series finale against the Lady Razorbacks, Turner came on in relief in the sixth inning and earned her first save of the season. In two innings of work, she did not allow a hit, bringing her weekend total to nine no-hit innings. In her first appearance of the week, she threw started and threw three innings against Southern on Wednesday. She allowed just two hits in that outing.
For the week, she did not allow a single base runner to reach third base against her as only two opponents advanced into scoring position. Opponents were held to a .053 batting average against her as Turner improved to 15-5 on the season.
A native of Houston, Texas, Jackson was 9-of-14 on the week for a .643 batting average. The left fielder led the team in hits and tied for the team lead in stolen bases with two. In addition, she ranked second on the team in batting average and RBIs with four.
Beginning with Wednesday’s game against Southern, Jackson recorded hits in four consecutive at-bats, which included a 3-for-3 mark against the Lady Jaguars. After entering the week with just 10 RBIs for the season, she recorded four on the week, including what proved to be the game-winner in the second game against Arkansas.
With her 3-for-3 performance against Southern and a 3-fof-4 mark against Arkansas, it marked the sixth game for Jackson this season with three or more hits. With a 2-for-3 performance in the second game against the Lady’Backs, she recorded her 19th multiple-hit game of the year, which is second best on the team. For the season, she improved her batting average from .374 to .399, the third best on the team this year.
After a mid-week game at Southeastern Louisiana on Wednesday at 6 p.m., LSU’s final regular season home games will be a three-game series against No. 1 Tennessee this weekend. The series begins with a doubleheader on Saturday at 3 p.m., in a game time that was pushed back two hours for television, and concludes with a single game on Sunday at 1 p.m. The first and third games of the series will be broadcast live nationally on ESPN2, in Baton Rouge on cable channel 36.