In back-to-back years LSU has swept ULL during their regular season matchups.
“It was about the fifth inning when I knew that it was not going to end quietly, and it never does,” Head Coach Beth Torina said. “ULL is too good of a team to just go down quietly so I figured there was some drama left in this ballgame and that we would have to figure out how to get some outs in a high-pressure situation.”
The Tigers traveled to Lafayette on Thursday, hung four runs on the board during the fourth inning, and walked away from a bases loaded jam in the bottom of the seventh to shutout the Cajuns winning 4-0 in the process. In the return to Baton Rouge the top of four hitters got things going for the team early.
Coffey, Briggs, Pleasants, and Clark all hit singles to lead off the home half of the first and all managed to score before the inning was up. The ULL starting pitcher, Kendra Lamb, is one the Tigers are quite familiar with. In five appearances; including this game, against the Tigers Lamb is 1-3 with a 5.04 ERA in 16.2 innings of work. The two tenths of an inning tacked on to the end of that number is what Lamb was only able to get through during this game after giving up the four runs in the first.
The Tiger’s defense was stellar again this game with no errors in the process. One player that has played exceptionally well defensively for the Tigers is a new name to the program, Freshman Sydney Peterson. Stepping into her role at second base she has been perfect to start the season on her 49 fielding chances.
“Sydney Peterson might be the best defensive player on the team, she is incredible defensively and she changes games with her defense. [Peterson] is going to continue to grow as a hitter, she’s young and [the team] are seeing good pitching, but I’m excited for the future of Sydney Peterson.” Coach Torina said of her budding second baseman. To her credit Peterson heading into this game against ULL had an on base percentage of .500 in her limited plate appearances.
Ali Kilponen started the game in the circle for the Tigers and Shelbi Sunseri closed it out, a common scene so far this season. Working into the seventh, Kilponen was able to force ten groundouts, five flyouts and an inning ending double play along with two strikeouts to alleviate most threats of the Cajun hitters.
Starting off with a significant four-run lead helped to carry the Tigers through the rest of the game, though the Cajuns lived up to the Ragin’ part of their name. The Cajuns scored their first run in the third and dropped a solo homerun on the left field berm to halve the Tigers lead. That, however, was all the offense they could muster having only five hits throughout the game and left six runners on the basepaths.
Kilponen has over 60 innings pitched and Sunseri over 50 innings to start the season. The next closest pitcher, Shelby Wickersham, has thrown 18 and a third innings on four starts and six total appearances.
Although there is a significant gap between the two aces in the circle for the Tigers and the rest of the pitching staff, there does not seem like a chance to let up on the workload for them. Looking past the two games scheduled Sunday afternoon, the current second-ranked Alabama will be heading into Tiger Park for a three-game weekend series.
The Tigers faced Alabama twice last year in the Bama Bash prior to regular season play and did not count in SEC standings. LSU lost both matchups falling 5-2 and then 13-5 on a run-rule in the second game.
The Tide has been rolling this season, collecting 121 runs and 19 straight wins to start the season with two games separating them from the weekend series in Baton Rouge. The team is averaging .314, with an OPS of .953 and a team total of 140 hits, 25 doubles, and 19 homeruns.
There are two more games to be played before we get to an exciting weekend ahead as the Tigers will finish the LSU Invitational off Sunday against Louisiana Tech around a noon start time, and Central Connecticut State following that. There will be some needed rest before the biggest weekend series of the season.