BATON ROUGE, La. – A half-dozen runs in the first two innings propelled No. 2 LSU over No. 3 Texas, 7-4, Tuesday at Tiger Park.
LSU improves to 23-0 overall, marking the second-best start in program history, bested only by a 25-0 start in 2015. Texas moves to 21-3 on the season.
Pitcher Sydney Berzon (9-0) earned the win. On 109 pitches, she fanned four batters in a complete game, allowing nine hits, four runs, and a free pass.
Texas pitcher Teagan Kavan (10-1) suffered her first loss of the season, allowing three hits and five runs with a free pass and a strikeout thrown in 0.2 innings.
Ciara Briggs was a force in the Tigers’ win, going 2-for-3 with two runs and an RBI. The game against the Longhorns was Briggs’ fourth consecutive game with a hit and run scored. Kelley Lynch, who went 1-for-2 with three RBIs, helped bolster the Tigers’ lead with a three-RBI double.
“All of our coaches had a great game plan put together, and I think the team followed the script well and bought into what we wanted to do,” said coach Torina. “It’s fun to see the plan executed perfectly.”
First baseman Raeleen Gutierrez got the Tigers going with a run-scoring double in the first, and Lynch closed the stanza with a base-clearing double to highlight the five-run inning. LSU scored another run in the second thanks to an RBI single from outfielder Ali Newland, which gave the home team a 6-0 lead through two frames.
Texas cut into the Tigers’ lead with three runs in the third and one in the top of the fourth, but LSU retaliated with Briggs’ sac fly to make the score 7-4, scoring third baseman Sierra Daniel, who hit a leadoff triple – the first of her career.
Berzon stifled the Longhorns’ hopes of a comeback by retiring the last 10 batters she faced with three strikeouts.
Up Next
LSU will play its SEC home opening series March 16-18 against Ole Miss.
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