After falling behind early against Memphis in the first game of the annual Tiger Classic, the No. 19 LSU softball team came out against Eastern Illinois swinging and earned a 6-1 victory.
Senior outfielder A.J. Andrews sparked the Tigers (2-0) in the bottom of the 1st inning with a triple. The Tigers never looked back, scoring six runs on 10 hits. As the offense lit up the scoreboard, freshman pitcher Carley Hoover excelled in her first start since transferring to LSU from Stanford.
“It’s a great feeling for me to know that I give up one run, but we already six runs up there,” Hoover said. “I don’t really have anything to worry about. Southeastern Conference [play] may be a little different, but if we keep doing what we did tonight, I’m happy.”
After exploding to score six runs in the bottom of the 6th inning to earn a 7-2 win against Memphis (0-1) earlier in the day, LSU’s offense rolled smoothly, scoring in four different innings against Eastern Illinois (0-1).
In the 1st inning, junior shortstop Bianka Bell, who hit LSU’s first homer of the season against Memphis, drove Andrews in with a sacrifice fly to put the Tigers on the board.
Junior infielder Sandra Simmons drove in junior designated player Kellsi Kloss with a triple in the 3rd inning.
Andrews scored on a passed ball by the Panthers’ senior catcher Hannah Cole in the 4th inning after hitting her second triple of the night.
In the 5th, the Tigers’ offense clicked with a combination of speed and power to score three runs and extend its lead to six runs.
As the offense continued to tally runs, Hoover notched strikeout after strikeout to keep the Panthers scoreless until the 6th inning. Hoover finished with 10 strikeouts, four walks and only one earned run on 121 pitches.
Despite the eye-catching strikeout count, Hoover said she looks to improve on her performance.
“It was good to get [the first start] out of the way,” Hoover said. “It wasn’t what I hoped for. My teammates played great [defense] behind me, and I really couldn’t ask for more…I let too many balls go into play.”
Defensively, LSU filled in the holes left by the graduation of former Tigers’ left fielder Jacee Blades and third baseman Tammy Wray.
All-American sophomore catcher/infielder Sahvanna Jaquish moved back to catcher after starting at third base against Memphis, making way for junior infielder Jenna Kreamer to start at third against Eastern Illinois.
Junior outfielder Alayna Falcon started in left field against Eastern Illinois after freshman outfielder Emily Griggs started in left against Memphis.
“Everyone really did well,” said LSU coach Beth Torina. “It’s still a tough challenge for me to figure out who is going to be the starter at [third base and left field]…It’s nice to let people play early here. It’s nice to have some depth, so if we have an injury or if something happens later in the season, people have played.”
LSU will continue in the Tiger Classic tomorrow with another double-header against Tennessee State (0-2) at 3 p.m. and NC State (1-1) at 5:30 p.m. at Tiger Park.