BATON ROUGE, La. – Sydney Berzon threw her fifth career shutout behind eight strikeouts in No. 14/15 LSU’s 8-0 victory over Nicholls on opening day at Tiger Park.
“I thought she [Sydney Berzon] was dominant,” said head coach Beth Torina. “Many things were working for her, and she is a special player. I’m excited for the year she’s going to have, and I think this was just step one.”
Berzon started where she left off last season in the complete-game shutout. She retired the first nine batters she faced and logged five strikeouts. Berzon relinquished only two hits against the 18 batters she faced and threw 66 pitches with no walks.
Raeleen Gutierrez led the way on offense, going 2-for-2 at the plate, including the Tigers’ first home run of the season. Taylor Pleasants increased her hitting streak to seven games dating back to last season and had a game-high three RBIs.
The Tigers’ offense scored its first run of the season on Gutierrez’s solo shot to right field in the second inning. LSU continued to apply pressure and built a 4-0 lead behind a three-run third inning, highlighted by Redoutey’s two-RBI triple and Karli Petty’s RBI single.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, Pleasants made her presence known with a three-run RBI triple and came home due to a throwing error from Nicholls, making the score 8-0.
LSU will open day one of the LSU Invitational with a 4 p.m. game against Memphis, then challenge Pittsburgh at 6:30 p.m.
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