OKLAHOMA CITY – After extending its season with a win against Auburn on Saturday night, the No. 8 LSU softball team’s historic 2015 campaign ended with a 6-3 loss to No. 3 seeded Michigan in Women’s College World Series semifinals Sunday afternoon.
In LSU’s fourth WCWS appearance, the Tigers (52-14) tied their best finish in program history and recorded the best record during LSU coach Beth Torina’s tenure.
“I hope none of my players are hanging their heads today,” Torina said. “The sadness is not necessarily the way it ended or how it ended but the fact it had to end because it was so incredibly enjoyable. And as their coach, I enjoyed every single minute with them this year.”
After the Wolverines’ sophomore starter Megan Betsa (31-4) and LSU’s freshman pitcher Carley Hoover (18-7) retired each side in order in the first, the Tigers broke the deadlock in the top of the second with a sacrifice fly.
Sophomore third baseman Sahvanna Jaquish struck out to lead off, but in the next at-bat, junior catcher Kellsi Kloss became the game’s first baserunner by drawing a walk off a full-count by Betsa.
Junior first baseman Sandra Simmons continued the momentum with a single up the middle, bringing sophomore designated player Constance Quinn to the plate.
On the second pitch of the at-bat, Quinn drove in Kloss with her first sacrifice fly of the season, only the second of her LSU career.
The Wolverines (59-6) did not go down quietly, knotting the game 1-1 in the third with their 119th homer of the season.
Junior second baseman Sierra Romero stepped up the plate and smashed her team-leading 22nd homer of the season over the left field wall.
“I was just trying to get on base,” Romero said. “I was trying to hit the ball hard. If I’m going to get out, I want it to at least be a hard out. I saw the ball and I hit it, and it just happened to go out.”
LSU rallied back with a two-out, two-RBI double by sophomore right fielder Bailey Landry.
Simmons led off with a bunt single and freshman second baseman Sydney Bourg singled up the middle, then Andrews drew her 47th walk of the season to load the bases for Landry with two outs.
Despite falling behind in the count 0-2, Landry drove in two runs on the third pitch of the at-bat with a two-out double to left center, spurring LSU to a 3-1 lead.
“The first two pitches I saw I thought they were a little bit high and out. But he called them strikes,” Landry said. “I just knew going into the next pitch, if she was going to throw it high, that I would have to get on top of the ball. And I had popped out one of my previous at-bats. I knew I just had to get my hands above it and go with it.”
Michigan answered with a two-run inning of its own in the bottom of the same frame.
Sophomore third baseman Lindsay Montemarano doubled, and two at-bats later, freshman first baseman Tera Blanco drove her in with an RBI single that dropped inches in front of Andrews’ glove.
The Wolverines notched another run on a throwing error by Kloss to Jaquish at third, evening the score at 3-3.
In the sixth, Michigan broke the game open with a three-run inning, putting the game out of the reach.
After Wagner reached a fielder’s choice, Blanco and Ramirez loaded the bases with back-to-back singles off Hoover.Stepping up to the plate with one out, junior center fielder Sierra Lawrence kept calm by understanding her role.
“Staying one-pitch focused and believing in myself, and knowing that if I didn’t get it done somebody behind me was going to get it done, ” Lawrence said.
Lawrence’s composure paid off as she roped a double down the left field line, driving in two runs.
The Wolverines added another run on a double steal later in the inning to cap off their scoring.
“I don’t think we got any breaks in [the sixth],” Torina said. “And a lot of that was created by ourselves. But I think they did some things to us there that we hadn’t seen in a while. … But that’s the whole idea of being in this tournament is you’ll see people that can pull out all the stops, can do a lot of things.”
Despite the disappointment in the loss, Torina and company is looking forward to the success that is possible with a squad that will lose only one starter in senior center fielder A.J. Andrews while returning a program-record five All-Americans.
“Having the core of your team playing in a game like this, being in this setting and being in this scenario I think is huge going down the road,” Torina said. “And of course my message to them is that there’s no guarantees. This was a special group. … But they definitely have all of the tools, talent, ability in order to put them back in this spot and continue to achieve even more than this.”