After a flat tire and a near game-canceling thunderstorm hovered above Baton Rouge, the No. 14 LSU softball team defeated Northwestern State, 6-1, in a five-hour affair on Wednesday night.
Before the scheduled 6 p.m. first pitch, the Lady Demons were nearly derailed by a flat tire on their team bus ride from Natchitoches, Louisiana. The contest, eventually, began at 6:45 p.m. in an attempt to squeeze in the midweek contest before a thunderstorm arrived and caused a back-and-forth singing and dancing battle between the two teams.
“When we’re having fun, singing or dancing, that’s what this program is. A fun-loving program and that’s how we play,” said sophomore outfielder Emily Griggs.
The Tigers and Lady Demons played nearly three innings before the storm blackened Baton Rouge’s skies and caused a two hour and 13-minute delay before softball resumed in Tiger Park.
Before the downpour, sophomore pitcher Allie Walljasper began in the circle for the Tigers, (33-13, 8-11 Southeastern Conference) where she struck out three and allowed just one hit in the first two innings.
The team appeared to be about to break the scoreless deadlock in its first plate appearance as LSU’s opening three batters boarded the basepaths. But the team proceeded to strand those three runners, and fell in three-straight outs to end the second frame.
NSU managed a mere one baserunner throughout the opening two innings.
But almost as quickly as Walljasper sent away the three Lady Demons, the weather turned poor and the singing and dancing began.
“That loosened us up, and got us in the moment. We produced runs after that,” Jaquish said.
Officially, the Tigers and Lady Demons restarted at 10 p.m. in clearer skies.
In the first return inning — the bottom of the third — junior catcher Sahvanna Jaquish blasted a three-run home, which pushed the Tigers ahead, 4-0.
Torina, though, didn’t believe it was Jaquish’s singing and dancing that produced her energy and hit power after the weather delay.
“I’d like to think that’s because we practice yesterday for what was to come today,” she said jokingly.
LSU went on to retire three Lady Demons outs in the top of the fourth before senior infielder Sandra Simmons pushed a run home with an RBI double in the latter of the inning.
As is the usual for the Tigers this season, the team left the bases loaded to end the fourth frame as senior designated hitter Kellsi Kloss sent a fly ball into a Lady Demon glove to end the inning.
Northwestern’s only score followed a solo bomb from Kellye Kincannon, a .408 hitter on the season, over Tiger Park’s center field wall in the top of the sixth inning.
Jaquish, the Tigers’ hottest hitter on Wednesday, shuffled in another run in the bottom of the sixth inning with an RBI triple, propelling LSU ahead five runs to the Lady Demons’ one and to 33 wins thus far this season.
“At this point, every win is at a premium for our team,” Torina said. “They answered that call.”