In March, the LSU softball team was only four games above .500, sitting in the bottom of the Southeastern Conference with a 2-7 record.
But the softball season doesn’t end in March, and the Tigers are showing they aren’t the same team from earlier in the season.
LSU (31-20, 11-10 SEC) scored 10 runs in the second inning of Sunday’s 13-4 win in five innings against Ole Miss (22-28, 3-18 SEC). Senior pitcher Ashley Czechner recovered after a rough first inning to complete a sweep of Ole Miss. It is the sixth win in seven games for the Tigers and their fourth consecutive conference victory.
The sweep continues the team’s late-season surge, as LSU has gone from last in the SEC to the top seven in less than a month. The win Sunday gave the Tigers a winning conference record for the first time since March 7.
The Tigers started the game aggressively, with a hit, hit batter and three stolen bases putting runners on second and third with no outs. Freshman catcher Sahvanna Jaquish hit a sacrifice fly to score junior outfielder A.J. Andrews, and the Tigers drew first blood for the third time this series.
But Ole Miss responded in the first with more runs than it had scored in the previous 12 innings of the series. The Rebels tied the game after four of the first five batters reached base, two by singles, one through a hit by pitch and one through an error by sophomore shortstop Bianka Bell.
Czechner would settle down but not before a fielder’s choice and a passed ball gave the Rebels a two-run lead heading into the second.
The Tigers offense responded immediately, with three walks and an error cutting the deficit to one and loading the bases with one out. Junior utility player and pinch hitter Kailey McCasland followed this with a two-run single, and LSU recovered the lead as quickly as it had lost it.
With the bases loaded and two outs in the inning, the game was delayed for almost 30 minutes due to rain. But the Tigers’ rally in the inning was only the beginning.
Three walks and a pair of two-run singles by Allison and Alayna Falcon, all with two outs, pushed the LSU lead to eight. The Tigers had suddenly gone from a small deficit to a mercy rule — winning lead, and the team would not look back from there.
Ole Miss would score a run in the third through a sacrifice fly, but sophomore catcher Kellsi Kloss hit a solo home run on the first pitch of the fourth inning to put the Tigers back up eight. It was Kloss’s third RBI of the series and ninth home run of the season.
Czechner would pitch resiliently the rest of the way, going the final four innings allowing only three hits, one walk and one earned run. The Tigers will play Southeastern Louisiana in Hammond on Wednesday before finishing SEC play with a three-game home series against Mississippi State.