The No. 2 LSU softball team completed its second Southeastern Conference series sweep this season with a 8-2 victory against Ole Miss in Game 3 of the series. It was the Tigers’ second win of a Saturday doubleheader in Tiger Park.
Although Ole Miss (22-16, 5-10 SEC) took the early lead, the Tigers’ (36-3, 9-3 SEC) combination of dominant pitching and a high-powered lineup proved too much for the Rebels to handle as LSU rallied to score eight unanswered runs.
“Coming together as a team was a huge accomplishment,” said freshman pitcher Allie Walljasper in a news release. “We did everything we needed to do. We had a lot of quality at bats that got us through each game and we worked together. We worked our butts off to get us back to this position and overcome the adversity from last week.”
Despite allowing a run to score on a well-executed sacrifice bunt in the first inning, Walljasper (10-1) shut down the Ole Miss lineup, allowing only three hits in her 10th complete game of the season.
Walljasper recorded eight strikeouts and allowed only one walk. She became the second Tiger of the day to notch her 10th victory of the season after freshman pitcher Carley Hoover completed the feat in Game 2.
In the series, the Tigers’ pitching staff rebounded from a tough weekend in Kentucky. As a staff, LSU recorded three complete games and 26 strikeouts while allowing 11 hits and only one walk.
“It is amazing,” said LSU coach Beth Torina in a press release. “We were just having a conversation about the pitching staff in general; how strong we are because of the mix of the four of them.”
While Walljasper dominated in the circle, LSU’s bats came alive in the third inning.
Senior center fielder A.J. Andrews started the rally with her first home run of the season, a solo shot to right field, which tied the game, 1-1.
Following Andrews’ homer, junior shortstop Bianka Bell and sophomore catcher Sahvanna Jaquish broke the game open with their 53rd and 54th RBIs of the season, respectively.
Bell broke the tie with her 18th double of the season, which drove in sophomore right fielder Bailey Landry from second. On the next at-bat, Jaquish drove in Bell with a single up the middle after Bell advanced to third on a passed ball.
Although junior designated player Kellsi Kloss added another run with a RBI single in the fifth, the the Rebels cut LSU’s lead to two runs with RBI single in the top of sixth. The Tigers responded with a four-run sixth inning.
Following back-to-back leadoff walks, Landry loaded the bases with an infield single, bringing Bell to the plate.
After Bell drove in a run with a walk, Jaquish stepped up with her eighth double of the season and extended LSU’s lead to 7-2. Kloss capped off the scoring with a RBI single to short.
Despite struggling in their last series, the Tigers’ lineup got back on track against Ole Miss, out hitting the Rebels 31-10.
“It is that our lineup is really deep,” Torina said in a press release. “We’re strong one through nine. We can score with one. We can score with four, and we can score with eight and nine. We’ve shown that all year long, and that’s a big reason for our success, as well as the depth of this lineup.”