Tiger Park Baton Rouge—LSU Softball faced off against Tennessee Tech to end the weekend this Sunday on a beautiful day in Tiger Park, 76 degrees with not a cloud in the sky and low winds in the outfield. LSU won easily over Tech 16 to 0, almost reaching LSU’s all time run record of 17 in a single game. This was truly a complete game all around. From pitching and defense to hitting, the Tigers looked strong.
Starting pitcher for the Tigers today was All-American Carley Hoover proving for sure she deserves the title of All-American from the very start. In the first inning Hoover struck out all three batters on just ten pitches. This established the tempo for the rest of the game that Hoover would finish with seven strike outs and no hits. Her perfect game was spoiled when she hit a Tech player with a pitch on a controversial call.
The LSU defense was in full force today making play after play to help Hoover’s no hitter stay intact. In four of the five innings Tech went three up three down, only in the second did they show any life when Hoover was having difficulty finding the strike zone after a bottom of the first that lasted almost an hour. Hoover’s arm seemed to have gotten cold in the long break between pitches. However, once the game picked up pace Hoover seemed to settle back into the strike out machine we are used to seeing.
LSU’s biggest inning on the day came right out the gate with the Tigers scoring ten runs on seven hits. The Tigers were able to go through their batting line up twice in just one inning. From this point on Tech looked completely out of the game and the Tigers continued to turn up the heat defensively. In the third the Tigers added another three runs on solid hitting from All-American Landry and Griggs. Both had singles that drove runs in. Finally, the Tigers were able to put the nail in the coffin of Tech in the fourth inning scoring another three runs, which put them at 16 runs and 14 hits on the day.
This LSU softball team is proving they will be a force to be reckoned with once SEC play starts. Despite the SEC being incredibly strong once again this year the tigers are putting themselves in position to make a run at a conference championship and to make it back to the College Softball World Series where last year they fell just short of a National Title. Lead by a team deep in All-Americans and veterans I fully expect LSU to have a shot to take home the championship this year.