The LSU softball team finished its five-game road trip with a 10-2, five-inning victory against in-state opponent Nicholls State (4-16) in Thibodaux on Wednesday night.
The Tigers’ (11-7) bats got off to a hot start after a tough 1-3 weekend, during which opponents shut out LSU in each of its losses.
In the top of the first inning, senior outfielder Ashley Langoni homered to left-center field with two outs to plate senior outfielder Ashley Applegate and give LSU an early 2-0 lead.
Freshman shortstop Dylan Supak followed Langoni’s at-bat with her first career home run to extend the Tigers’ lead to three and added a two-RBI single in the fifth frame.
“I felt pretty good in the box,” Supak said. “As a team, we swung the bat really well. Hits are contagious, and that definitely showed tonight.”
LSU coach Beth Torina gave Supak her first start at shortstop against the Colonels after playing her primarily at first base this season. Torina said Supak’s work ethic earned her the start at shortstop, and she didn’t disappoint.
“She did a really good job,” Torina said. “She has been swinging better and better, and she works so hard in practice. She deserved to have a great night.”
The Colonels plated a run in the bottom of the second inning to cut the lead to two, but Langoni pushed the lead back to three in the top of the third with an RBI single.
Nicholls State answered back in the bottom half of the inning with a solo home run, but sophomore first baseman Ashleigh Kuhn extended the Tigers’ lead back to three in the top half of the next inning with an RBI double.
Already leading, 5-2, LSU piled on five runs in the top of the fifth to take a 10-2 lead, which would be the game’s final score.
LSU sealed the victory two innings short of the usual seven by maintaing the eight-run lead over the Colonels through the fifth inning.
Supak’s two-RBI single kicked off the Tigers’ attack, followed by an RBI from freshman third baseman Kailey McCasland, a Kuhn RBI groundout and a pinch-hit RBI single from senior Heidi Pizer.
“This is the most aggressive I’ve seen the offense all season,” Torina said. “The entire lineup, one through nine, swung hard. They were in attack mode.”
The Tigers’ leadoff batter reached base in four of five innings and came around to score each time.
“The key was they actually hit with people on base, too,” Torina said. “They did a good job of moving and scoring the runners.”
Junior pitcher Rachele Fico pitched four innings and allowed two runs while earning her sixth win this season.
Langoni said the Tigers did what they planned to do against a local opponent.
“Any in-state opponent, that’s how we’ve got to play them,” Langoni said. “We’ve got to go out and crush the ball.”
LSU returns to action Friday at 5 p.m against Mississippi Valley State (9-9) in its first game of the Purple and Gold Challenge. The Tigers will face the Devilettes again Saturday afternoon, sandwiching two contests against Troy (16-2) on Friday night and Saturday at 1:30 p.m.
 
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Contact Scott Branson at [email protected]