Senior second baseman Constance Quinn’s walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh inning gave No.12 LSU a 4-3 victory over Georgia.
“I told the team it’s fun any time you have a walk off, but it’s more fun when it’s Constance Quinn that walks it off because of her emotion and her energy,” LSU coach Beth Torina said.
This is the second time this week that the Tigers (25-7, 2-2 Southeastern Conference) have won on a walk-off single in the last inning.
“I feel like it would be really nice to put a game away early,” Hoover said. “But it’s not a bad thing to be able to put a game away late either. I think that will definitely come in clutch for us later this season as we play tougher competition.”
Despite the early deficit, the Tigers defense only allowed one more run the rest of the game.
Junior pitcher Carley Hoover struggled early in the first, but picked it up during the rest of the game. She finished allowing only three hits and notching four strikeouts.
“You’re not always perfect out there on the mound but I think me and SJ [Jaquish] found it there,” Hoover said. “Sometimes you can’t be perfect, you have to find a way to win when you don’t have your stuff. So it was one of those nights and I think as a team it was a good night for me to be off because we played great defense and we hit the ball really well tonight.”
While Georgia went ahead early, that did not stop the Tigers from battling back with some runs of their own.
The Tigers cut the lead in half in the bottom of the second when sophomore third baseman Shemiah Sanchez singled to drive in junior pitcher Allie Walljasper.
The LSU offense exploded in the bottom of the fifth, when sophomore shortstop Amber Serrett lead off with single on a bunt.
Sanchez reached first on a fielder’s choice, and advances to second on the throwing error by Georgia’s second baseman. Another Georgia error caused freshman left fielder Aliyah Andrews to advance to second on a single, scoring Sanchez and tying the score 2-2.
A sacrifice fly by senior right fielder Bailey Landry scored Andrews to give the Tigers the 3-2 lead.
The Bulldogs tied the game again in the top of the sixth.
After junior center fielder Emily Griggs leads off with a single in the bottom of the seventh, Torina resorted to some small ball to move the runners.
Senior right fielder Bailey Landry bunted for a single, while senior catcher Sahvanna Jaquish, one of the best hitters on the team, a sacrifice bunt put runners on second and third with one out.
“Sahvanna wanted to bunt, honestly,” Torina said. “She wanted that for the team. She just felt like that was our best shot. It was going to be a conversation but she just stepped up and said that’s what I want to do and it was no longer a conversation.”
Walljasper walked to load the bases as Quinn came up to bat.
“I think the positive was the offense continued to get better as the game went on,” Torina said. “We keep quality at bats and they were significantly increasing as the game went on and that’s what should happen. We’re getting information first at bat, putting the ball in play second and things should be happening after.”
The Tigers continue with SEC play Saturday against Georgia tomorrow at 6 p.m.