The No. 4 seed LSU softball team lost to the No. 5 seed Tennessee, 7-5, in the second round of the Southeastern Conference Tournament on Thursday evening at Tiger Park.
The Lady Volunteers (41-13) bested the Tigers (44-11) in a back-and-forth, offense-filled game that featured six pitchers, four lead changes, 18 hits and four home runs.
“Both of us played a great game, but somebody has to lose in the end,” said freshman left fielder Emily Griggs. “Unfortunately that was us, but we’ll bounce back.”
LSU jumped out to an early lead in the bottom of the first inning.
Senior center fielder A.J. Andrews drew a leadoff walk to give the Tigers a baserunner. Sophomore right fielder Bailey Landry laid down a textbook sacrifice bunt in the following at-bat to move Andrews over to second base. Junior shortstop Bianka Bell followed with an RBI double to the left field wall gave LSU a 1-0 lead.
LSU extended its lead in the second with the same formula. Sophomore designated player Constance Quinn drew a leadoff walk, and freshman second baseman Sydney Bourg’s bunt allowed Quinn to advance to second.
A wild pitch and an RBI single from freshman left fielder Emily Griggs stretched the Tigers’ lead to 2-0 and chased Tennessee junior pitcher Gretchen Aucoin out of the circle after 1 ⅓ innings of work. The Lady Vols turned to junior Erin Gabriel to pitch them out of the inning.
Neither team could post anything on the scoreboard in the third inning, but the Lady Volunteers’ offense exploded for three runs in the top of the fourth to claim the lead for the first time.
Freshman shortstop Meghan Gregg homered to center to cut LSU’s lead in half. Junior left fielder Lexi Overstreet followed with a single, and sophomore first baseman Taylor Koenig hit the second home run of the inning to give the Lady Vols a 3-2 advantage.
LSU freshman pitcher Hoover exited the game in the top of the fifth inning, and LSU turned to her classmate Allie Walljasper in the circle. Hoover allowed six hits and three runs on 71 pitches in 4 ⅔ innings. Torina said her two freshman pitchers will continue to learn going forward.
Tennessee couldn’t add to its slender advantage immediately after Walljasper entered the game, and it allowed LSU to reclaim the lead with a three-run frame of its own in the bottom of the fifth.
Bell got all of Gabriel’s 2-1 offering and launched the ball over the left field berm to the crowd’s approval. The solo shot was Bell’s 16th of the season.
Two walks and a wild pitch had LSU primed to score more before the end of the inning.
Quinn singled up the middle, scoring freshman pinch runner Taylor Lockwood. An errant throw to home allowed Quinn to take second. Bourg followed with a single of her own to score Quinn and stretch LSU’s lead to 5-3 after five innings.
LSU’s three-run inning didn’t faze the Lady Vols, who responded with three more runs in the top of the sixth. Tennessee reclaimed the lead with a single, a hit-by-pitch, a sacrifice fly and consecutive doubles.
Sophomore second baseman Megan Geer launched her 13th home run of the season in the top of the seventh inning to extend Tennessee’s lead to 7-5. The two-run margin proved to be too much for LSU to overcome in the game’s final half inning.
Torina said the Lady Vols offense was “amazing” and hit the ball all over the park.
“Things didn’t go our way at the end,” Bell said. “They hit the ball hard and found holes. We just couldn’t execute at the very end of the game, and I just wish we could find a way to get runners on base and execute towards the end.”
