LSU’s game against Ole Miss this Saturday – the Tigers’ first home game in more than two weeks – cannot come quickly enough. This weekend, No. 10 LSU (29-10, 8-6) came up on the wrong end of a series sweep to a Southeastern Conference foe for the second straight week. No. 2 Alabama (35-3, 15-2) extended the Tigers’ losing streak to six games with wins of 9-8, 8-0 and 8-1. The Tigers entered the weekend coming off a three-game sweep at the hands of Florida with a string of 20 scoreless innings. But the Tigers seemed to be back on track early in Saturday’s first game. LSU scored two runs in the top of the second inning and took a 4-0 lead into the bottom of the sixth in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader. But that was when the tide turned. LSU sophomore pitcher Cody Trahan hit two of the first three batters to start the bottom of the sixth inning, and eventually, Alabama junior short stop Kellie Eubanks drove them both home with a two-out, three-run home run. After Trahan allowed a single, junior pitcher Dani Hofer came on in relief to end the inning. But Hofer loaded the bases with three walks in the bottom of the seventh before hitting Eubanks with a pitch that drove in the tying run. The Tigers took the lead again in the top of the ninth, 6-4, on a two-RBI double by sophomore center fielder Jazz Jackson. The Crimson Tide ended the inning by throwing Jackson out on a play at the plate. LSU could not hold the 6-4 lead in the bottom of the ninth as Hofer allowed a walk and a two-run home run to Alabama junior second baseman Lauren Parker to knot the game again at 6. The Tigers took yet another lead, 8-6, in the top of the tenth inning with a two-run home run by senior shortstop Tayl’r Hollis, but it still was not enough. “When you get up two in extra innings, you think you have the game won,” said LSU coach Yvette Girouard in a news release. “But we didn’t have anything in the circle today.” Morgan pitched a complete game, two-hitter for Alabama to pick up the 8-0 victory in Saturday’s second game. “Shame on us because it completely deflated us,” Girouard said of the close loss in the first game. “There’s no question that it got to us a little bit.” Things did not get any easier for the Tigers on Sunday. The series finale started close with 2 1/2 scoreless innings before Alabama broke things open with four runs in the bottom of the third. Alabama would go on to add to its lead in each of the next three innings and allow only one LSU run along the way, racking up the 8-1 win. “We are glad to get through this brutal stretch,” Girouard said of the past two weekend series against No. 3 Florida and No. 2 Alabama. “Certainly, this is not the outcome that I expected. But now, we’ve got to get home, work on some things, flush these two weeks and move on.”
—-Contact Jerit Roser at [email protected]