Prior to Sunday’s rubber match with South Carolina, softball coach Yvette Girouard gave starting pitcher Kristin Schmidt a little advice.
“I told Schmidt today in the bullpen that she would get the rest of the week off and would not pitch until Georgia,” Girouard said. “So I told her to leave everything on the field.”
Schmidt (15-3) apparently is as good a listener as she is a pitcher. The senior right-hander pitched a complete game one-hit shutout to propel the Tigers to a 4-0 win.
“[Schmidt] really stepped up today,” said third baseman Julie Wiese. “She pitched an awesome game and finally had a little defensive help behind her.”
As impressive as Schmidt was in the circle, freshman left fielder Leslie Klein was just as impressive inside the batter’s box. Klein supplied all four runs for LSU (25-5, 6-2 Southeastern Conference), on a 2-for-3 afternoon. Klein had four RBIs, one home run, a double and one run scored in the game.
Klein put LSU on the scoreboard in the bottom of the first as her double off the left field wall plated LaDonia Hughes from third base and Lauren Castle from second.
USC responded in the top of the second with a lead off double by Ashley Smith. The hit, however, was a rarity for the Gamecocks. Smith was the first and last base runner for the Gamecocks as Schmidt shut down USC during the final six innings, allowing no hits and no walks.
LSU got its final two runs in the bottom of the third as Klein blasted a two-run home run over the left field wall.
Melanie Henkes (3-3) received the loss for the Gamecocks. Henkes gave up four runs on five hits, in six innings of work.
In games one and two, seven innings was not enough to decide a winner. Both Saturday matchups went into extra frames with LSU winning game one 1-0 in 10 innings and USC taking game two 6-4 in nine innings.
In the first game, Schmidt pitched 10 innings, allowing only two hits and no runs as the Tigers defeated the Gamecocks 1-0.
The Tigers scored in the bottom of the 10th as second baseman Sara Fitzgerald scored on an RBI fielder’s choice by designated player Lauren Castle.
But the Tigers could not repeat the dramatic ending in game two.
Trailing 3-0 in the bottom of the fifth, LSU pulled to within one as Camille Harris and Castle both hit solo home runs.
LSU tied the game at three in the sixth inning on a Wiese home run that ricocheted off of the left field foul pole.
Wiese came through again in the seventh as she scored Klein on a ground ball to tie the game at four.
USC’s Meghan Cornett supplied the winning run in the ninth on a two run home run off of Schmidt.
Schmidt gave up only 10 hits and two runs in 19 innings during the weekend series, while striking out 26 batters.
“[Schmidt] is such a primetime player,” Wiese said. “She might not blow it by you, but she is going to get it past you somehow. She is such a great leader and pitcher on this team that we could not do without her.”