LSU entered the Hilton Houston Plaza Classic riding a seven-game winning streak, but the team is reeling after dropping three of five games during the weekend.
Sunday’s game was dominated by strong pitching performances. Sophomore pitcher Rachele Fico, less than a week removed from a perfect game, took the circle for the series finale and didn’t disappoint.
Fico pitched 7 2/3 innings of no-hit ball against tournament-host Houston, but she went unrewarded for her effort as LSU only managed three hits in a 1-0 loss in extra innings.
“I was doing my best to hit every spot the coaches called,” Fico said. “I was going to hang in there as long as I could.”
Fico was matched by Houston’s Amanda Crabtree in a pitchers’ duel. The two pitchers each hurled seven scoreless frames before the tiebreaker rule was put into effect.
When the game goes into extra innings, a runner is placed at second base to start the inning. LSU managed to knock in an infield single to put the go-ahead run at third, but Houston turned a double play to end the inning.
“You don’t want to get into that situation on someone’s home field,” said LSU coach Yvette Girouard. “They’ve got their crowd out there, and they get jacked up, and it always seems like the softball gods shine on the home team.”
Houston sophomore Reina Gaber pinch hit in the bottom of the eighth for Katy Beth Sherman and tallied Houston’s only hit of the game, good enough to score sophomore Ashleigh Jones.
Fico’s performance was one of LSU’s several standout pitching performances during the weekend.
“I thought Rachele [Fico] was phenomenal, I thought Meghan Patterson was phenomenal, and I thought Brittany Mack was lights out and certainly pitched well enough to get the win,” Girouard said.
Patterson started things off for the Tigers on Friday against Southern University by firing the 33rd no-hitter in team history.
In her third career start, Patterson struck out eight and walked four. Though the freshman was unhittable, the Tiger hitters didn’t seem to have trouble with the Southern pitching staff.
The game was shortened to five innings because of an enormous lead LSU built.
Nine different players drove in a run for the Tigers in the 12-0 rout.
The Tigers looked comfortable against their fellow Louisiana schools in the tournament, as they also dispatched Nicholls State on Saturday by an 11-2 margin.
Catcher Lauren Houston provided most of the offensive muscle with a three-run home run as part of an eight-run fifth inning.
LSU dropped its first game of the season to No. 20 Oklahoma State on Friday by two runs.
Oklahoma State sophomore Kat Espinosa moved to 3-0 on the season by holding the Tigers to three runs on six hits. The three runs were the lowest scoring output for LSU this season.
Fico gave up five earned runs in the loss.
 
 
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Contact Luke Johnson at [email protected]