No. 20 LSU softball let its first major upset victory of the season slip away to No. 5 Oklahoma after giving up a one-run lead in the seventh inning, which eventually led to a 3-2 defeat in extra innings.
LSU now falls to a four-game losing streak against the Sooners after being swept last season. This also denies the Tigers of a series sweep, something they haven’t achieved against Oklahoma since 2015.
Despite being down for six innings, Oklahoma produced the most offense in the contest with 10 hits, compared to LSU’s six. LSU completely seemed to stall out at the end of the contest, and after hitting the brakes, couldn’t keep up with such a strong offensive team.
Cece Cellura got her first start in SEC play since the 5-1 win against South Carolina. She looked good early on against an Oklahoma offense that leads the SEC in batting average, striking out top batters like Kassidy Pickering, who leads the SEC in home runs.
On the offensive side, LSU looked good in the first inning, with Jaila Lassiter getting on base on the Tigers’ first at-bat. While LSU picked up two outs off a strikeout and a groundout, she was able to advance to third base.
While Lassiter was in a great scoring position, Kylee Edwards would hit a groundout, ending the inning.
After an uneventful second inning, Oklahoma got on base first with a single. Cellura kept up her nice afternoon, though, forcing two outs on the following pitches, before a pop-up was caught right before going over the left field, keeping the contest scoreless.
At the bottom of the third, LSU was the first to score after Lassiter blasted a home run into left field.
The top of the fourth inning was full of excellent fielding by LSU. The first out came after Franklin caught a hard-driven ball before it dropped for a foul ball. The Tigers would get another great catch to end the inning after Char Lorenz stretched out for a hard hit ball while mid-air, ending the fourth 1-0.
Cellura let two runners get on base in the fifth, but off the back of a hyped up Tiger Park, would follow up by dealing a clutch strikeout and groundout to end that half of the inning scoreless.
LSU fought hard in the fifth to expand its lead to two, with Lassiter and Franklin getting on base off a single and a walk, but a fly-out by Kylee Edwards ended the inning with runners in a good position to score.
At the top of the sixth, Cellura continued to impress. She started off the inning by quickly reacting and catching a ball hit right back at the mound, before forcing another flyout caught by Franklin.
Oklahoma’s defense held onto the 1-0 deficit at the bottom of the sixth, leaving LSU’s defense with a great chance to win the contest by forcing a scoreless inning.
At the top of the seventh, LSU’s lead looked to be in jeopardy after Sooners second baseman Ailana Agbayani hit a single and later got well within scoring position at third base.
Despite playing well for so much of the contest, LSU’s defense finally seemed to stall out at the worst time.
The Tigers had a great opportunity to make things harder and force a second out, after Agbayani hesitated on a run home and scrambled around third base and home plate, but poor tagging eventually allowed her to be safe at third while also loading the bases.
Oklahoma would finally break away after Kendall Wells hit a ball short into right field, sending two runners home. In a huge turn of events, LSU would go from one up to one down with only the bottom of the seventh to go.
Tiger Park would show some life despite recent struggles after Ally Hutchins started off the offense by being walked. Oklahoma’s defense would then come close to a double play after handling a groundball hit by Lassiter, but despite Hutchins being forced out at second, Lassiter would save the Tigers an out by reaching first.
A Ciella Pickett fly-out made things a lot harder for the Tigers, as they’d fall to two outs. LSU then showed some fight after Lassiter advanced to second after a Tori Edwards walk.
LSU refused to give up, though, after Franklin came up with a huge hit on a 3-2 count, driving a ball down the left in-field line, which sent Lassiter home. Tiger Park would explode in cheers as LSU entered extra innings tied 2-2 off the back of Lassiter’s impressive night.
Oklahoma started extra innings with a double, leading head coach Beth Torina to pull Cellura from the mound and replace her with Jayden Heavner.
The replacement didn’t work as planned after Heavner gave up a walk, which was followed by hitting a batter. Oklahoma’s bases then loaded up while only being on one out, leading to a sacrifice fly by Abby Dayton, which sent one runner home.
Heavner would have her first strikeout, which ended the top of the eighth inning with the Tigers down 3-2.
LSU only managed to get one runner on base to start the eighth, leaving Avery Hodge up to make a clutch play on two outs.
Hodge wouldn’t be able to make it happen, though, as she chose to swing on a 3-2 count, which led to a fly-out short into right-center field. The Tigers would tragically fall to the Sooners 3-2 after only one extra inning.
The series’ second contest will take place on Saturday at 11 a.m.
