Deep into the postseason, brutality is as much a part of the game as triumph.
For every team that lives to play another day, one goes home.
On Sunday, May 26 in the decisive game three of the super regionals, each play that prompted a Stanford player to jump up and down was matched by a Tiger’s head held low.
Once again, LSU was brutally eliminated from the NCAA Tournament, this time with a 8-0 loss, called in the sixth inning by mercy rule.
“We just didn’t get a break,” head coach Beth Torina said. “Not one break.”
Through four full innings, the match was a scoreless pitcher’s battle between Stanford sophomore ace NiJaree Canady and LSU first team All-SEC sophomore pitcher Sydney Berzon.
The pivotal sequence of the game came when LSU had finally put together its first real threat to score with the bases loaded and only one out in the top of the fifth inning.
Junior outfielder McKenzie Redoutey stepped up to the plate and made an attempt at a sacrifice fly; however, Stanford’s throw home was fast enough to get the runner out, squashing a golden opportunity for the Tigers to break the scoreless tie.
Just three pitches later in the bottom of the same inning, a ball got behind Redoutey in right field for a triple that later became the game’s decisive first run.
From there, Stanford blew the game open with an explosive surge: eight hits and seven runs in the inning. Stanford tacked on another run in the bottom of the sixth to officially bring the game to an end.
It was a whirlwind turn of events, the kind of reversal that might give you whiplash. At the end of it, LSU’s season was over.
“I wish I had another five years, 10 years with this group,” Torina said through tears after the game. “They’ve done everything right the whole way.”
As the No. 8 seed in the tournament, Stanford of course presented a hefty task for LSU, due in part to Canady, the unquestionable best pitcher in the league.
Canady was the consensus national freshman of the year last year and followed up that campaign with a nation-leading 0.67 ERA and 307 strikeouts.
LSU didn’t get a break from Canady at any point of the three-game series.
The Tigers surprisingly pounced on Canady for three runs in the first inning of game one and hammered her for four more in the fifth inning on back-to-back home runs. The game would eventually end midway through that inning when LSU was awarded the 11-1 win by mercy rule.
The second game was more characteristic of Canady: a masterclass shutout to hold LSU to just two hits and three walks.
The final game of the series was more of the same, with the Tigers mustering only three hits.
Stanford relied on Canady to deliver for three straight nights, and she did.
This season and this series were pivotal turning points for LSU, a program that had unceremoniously bowed out of the NCAA Tournament in the regional round in back-to-back years.
In 2022, LSU was disappointingly swept out of the postseason with two straight losses in the regional round for the first time in school history.
Last year, it hosted a regional and put itself in a position where it needed only to win one of two games against UL-Lafayette to advance to the super regionals. The Tigers lost both games and were again eliminated.
Under Torina, the Tigers have made it to the Women’s College World Series four times, but they haven’t done so since 2017. Postseason success has been relatively scarce for a program with high expectations.
This season, it was important for Torina to re-establish the standard the program has come to expect since her hiring in 2012. In many ways, LSU answered the call.
From the jump of the season, LSU had the look of a dominant team.
The Tigers were outstanding in non-conference play, opening the season with 24 straight wins, including one over a Texas team that is now the NCAA Tournament’s top seed.
LSU peaked at as high as No. 2 in the national polls.
However, the Tigers also finished 12-12 in the SEC, winning only two series against Kentucky and Texas A&M.
Despite cooling off to finish the season, LSU did enough to earn the No. 9 seed in the NCAA Tournament and swept its way through the Baton Rouge Regional to earn a spot in the super regionals for the first time since 2021.
Still, the program is left with questions after yet another brutal postseason collapse.
With that uncertainty clouding what was a remarkable season and six members of the starting lineup graduating, LSU is at a crossroads.
