In an opening matchup between two top-15 teams in the Southeastern Conference, it was No. 15 LSU that came out on top, defeating No. 9 Texas A&M 2-0.
“It’s a huge win for the team and for the program,” LSU coach Beth Torina said. “It’s a big win in this part of the season.”
Senior pitcher Carley Hoover shined in one of her final games in Tiger Park. Hoover remained stout for the entire game as she allowed three hits and struck out four Aggie batters. Her 163 total strikeouts is fourth among SEC pitchers.
“I felt good,” Hoover said. “Our defense was awesome. I really loved the coaches’ plan heading into this weekend. Everything that we were planning on throwing them, I was really with it.”
“[Hoover] was absolutely dominant to do that to an offense like that,” Torina said. “She’s spectacular.”
As she heads in her final six regular season games in Tiger Park, one of Hoover’s main goals is to continue soaking up the atmosphere as much as she possibly can.
“My teammates and the fans and the coaches mean everything to me,” Hoover said. “To have this opportunity of still taking the mound is really fun.”
The Tigers drove in a run to start off the game courtesy of an RBI single by sophomore first baseman Amanda Doyle. But both offenses stalled for the next three and a half innings and could not produce another run.
LSU had base runners on the corners twice during the game but could not score the runner on third base.
Things started to open up for the Tigers in the bottom of the fifth inning as Doyle doubled to left center field to set up senior center fielder Emily Griggs in scoring position. On the very next play, junior third baseman Shemiah Sanchez drove in an RBI to score Griggs.
“I think that just shows resilience and bouncing back from not being able to score those runs,” Doyle said. “To get that insurance run [from Sanchez] was also huge for Carley. It took a little bit of pressure off of her, and that was really good for us.”
“It was nice to see them do their jobs,” Torina said. “They manufactured runs. We scored there because we moved runners up and put them in scoring position.”
As the Tigers head into their final nine games of the regular season, Torina’s goal for her team is to treat every game as an important game. This stretch of the season is even more crucial for the Tigers, considering that eight of those nine games are against teams from their conference.
“Every game in the SEC is important,” Torina said. “They’re all huge. So getting a win from a team like that is a big deal.”
LSU (34-10, 8-7 SEC) and Texas A&M (36-11, 9-7 SEC) continue their weekend series tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. in the Strikeout Ovarian Cancer game.