The eighth-ranked LSU softball team won its first Southeastern Conference road series of the season after winning on Friday and Saturday against No. 10 Georgia at Jack Turner Stadium.
But the Tigers (28-9, 5-7 SEC) couldn’t finish the sweep against the Bulldogs (31-7, 5-4 SEC), losing 3-1 on Sunday.
“We’re happy to walk out of here with a series win,” said LSU coach Beth Torina in a press release. “We had opportunities to win the game today, but couldn’t perform like we needed to.”
The series win in Athens was the first since the 2000-01 season when the Tigers last won in Georgia.
On Sunday, LSU freshman pitcher Sydney Smith stood in the circle for the Tigers, marking her first start in SEC play this season.
Her appearance didn’t last long, as Smith (7-2) only made it through 1.3 innings after allowing five hits and two earned runs and was swapped for LSU sophomore pitcher Carley Hoover in the second inning.
Hoover (11-3), who also started in the Tigers’ 5-4 victory on Friday, caged the Bulldogs offense to four hits.
Unfortunately for LSU, she couldn’t get any run support.
The Tigers rallied in the top of the fifth, putting runners on the corners with one out, but LSU couldn’t capitalize.
With runners on base, LSU mustered only one hit out of 13 attempts, and left eight stranded in the contest. Georgia senior pitcher Chelsea Wilkinson stifled the Tiger’s lineup, only giving up two hits to the LSU offense.
“Overall, I think we played well,” Torina said. “It was a big moment for our team to come in here and take a series against a really good program.”
The LSU pitching staff held the SEC’s home run leader — Georgia senior infielder Tina Iosefa — to a mere two hits throughout the weekend. In total, the LSU pitching staff gave up 24 hits and eight runs to the Bulldogs in the series.
Clutch hitting was a theme for the Tigers this weekend. Three of the 11 runs the Tigers scored during the three-game series happened when LSU’s back was against the wall with two outs.
LSU senior first baseman Sandra Simmons shined versus Georgia as she hit, hitting a solo home run in game 2, and finished the series 4-for-6 at the plate, and added two scores.
LSU sophomore pitcher Allie Walljasper was also a factor for the Tigers behind the plate and in the circle.
“Something we’ve been looking for all season long was for the Fighting Tigers to show up and they did,” Torina said on Friday in a release.
Walljasper blasted a two-out, two-run home run in Friday’s game to spark a rally. The Manteca, California, native also pitched in the next game, delivering a solid performance in the circle, Torina said.
“Allie did a good job of scattering hits throughout and not giving up a lot of hits back-to-back,” Torina said in a release after the Tigers 5-1 win on Saturday. “She made a lot of big pitches in big moments.”
LSU will be back at Tiger Park for a midweek matchup against Southern Mississippi at 6 p.m. on Wednesday.