A beautiful day at Tiger Park resulted in an even better game as No. 5 LSU (29-6, 7-2 Southeastern Conference) beat Nicholls (15-14, 5-1 Southland Conference) 12-1 in five innings.
It did not take long for the Tigers to get on the board against the Nicholls State Colonels as Aliyah Andrews showed her speed early and often.
In the bottom of the first, Andrews singled, stole second, and looked to jog from second to home on an Amanda Sanchez single to give the fighting Tigers an early lead that they would not relinquish.
While the Tigers remained in control, Nicholls did an exceptional job on shutting down the Tiger offense early as they only allowed three hits and one run through three.
The fourth inning was another story.
Two tigers found their way on with one out for the catcher Michaela Schlattman, and she made Nicholls pay by blasting one to center for a three run homer to extend the lead.
Amanda Sanchez picked up another RBI as she smoked a one hopper off the wall to score Andrews from second to increase the lead to five.
The damage was not done as LSU loaded the bases and four more scored on an error by the second basemen and right-fielder to up the lead to nine.
Tigers tack on one more as Nicholls commits another error to get their total up to five for the contest.
In the marathon that was the fourth inning, 11 runs crossed the plate to give the Tigers a cushion and let the fans go home early.
Add the explosive fourth inning to the fact that Shelby Wickersham had the best game of her young career, and one has a game that got out of reach and stayed that way.
Wickersham went five innings and allowed only one hit and one run with five strikeouts in her dominant performance.
The defense was perfect behind her by committing no errors on plenty of grounders and fly outs.
At the end of the day, Wickersham simply loves pitching with her defense behind her.
“[My team] made a lot of plays in the field,” Wickersham said. “I knew coming into college that I was not going to be as much of a strikeout pitcher as I was a groundball out or a pop out type pitcher. I like being able to rely on my team. It makes the game more fun and enjoyable.”
The freshman had a lot to be excited about after the win, and so did coach Beth Torina as her constant preaching of “doing the little things” seems to be adding up to big wins.
“We did make some adjustments and went back to doing some little things better,” Torina said. “I know I say that all the time but giving more attention to fundamental stuff instead of just getting prepared for the game helps…I think a lot of the stuff we are doing is paying off.”
The Tigers will look to improve their SEC record as they take on South Carolina Friday at Tiger Park.
