On a windy night in Columbia, Missouri, No. 20 LSU softball took a 9-1 run-rule victory in six innings over the opposing Mizzou Tigers.
Even with a huge display of offensive momentum in a seven-run sixth inning, the evening was all about one standout performance in particular: sophomore ace Jayden Heavener.
Heavener, a young left-hander who’s shown more aggression in the circle as of late, had a huge advantage when she got ahead in the count of the Mizzou batting order through all seven innings.
In Heavener’s six Mizzou batters faced, she recorded five back-to-back strikeouts against the top five batters in the order. Eventually, she struck out seven of her first eight batters.
The strikeout saga continued all six innings of the ballgame. Concluding the night after 135 pitches thrown, Heavener recorded a season-high 11 strikeouts, only allowing five hits, one run and five walks. Heavener was only two strikeouts away from reaching her career-high, which was 13 strikeouts against Charlotte in 2025.
“She’s just an awesome pitcher and player — just easy to pull for somebody like her, but she looks great tonight,” head coach Beth Torina said on SEC Network. “I think [she’s] throwing hard, she has been a lot lately, throwing hard, I like to see the velocity that she’s commanding the zone with and just doing a great job.”
LSU took an early 1-0 lead in the first after Mizzou’s Cierra Harrison walked second baseman Sierra Daniel, who advanced to second on a groundout and eventually scored at home on an RBI single hit by right fielder Alix Franklin in the cleanup spot.
Later in the fourth, LSU advanced its lead to two with an RBI single from catcher Maci Begeron that scored second baseman Tori Edwards, who had previously advanced to second on a wild pitch, in almost an exact copy of the play that scored the first run of the game.
In the fifth, Mizzou had two aboard with two outs and a chance to get a run on the board for the third straight inning. But just like the past two innings, Heavener consistently struck out the opposing Tigers’ lineup to leave a total of six Mizzou batters stranded on base in those three innings.
Edwards, who scored LSU’s second run two innings prior, drove the difference to four on a two-run home run to open the sixth. Centerfielder Jalia Lassiter recorded her first RBI of the night to extend LSU’s lead to five.
Then, Daniel, the eighth batter to touch the plate in the inning, recorded a two-run RBI in the next at-bat to put the Tigers up seven.
The LSU bats kept swinging, and magnificently, kept producing.
Another two-run homer from shortstop Kylee Edwards advanced LSU to a 9-0 lead, giving Heavener a comfortable stretch to record three final outs for a possible shutout and run-rule. This marked Edwards’ fifth home run in the Tigers’ last five games played.
Mizzou had two aboard with no outs in the bottom of the sixth inning, giving Heavener a little bit of work to aim for the shutout. With two away and bases loaded for Mizzou later on, Heavener walked freshman Gracie Britton to allow the opposing Tigers to get one on the board.
But, just one batter later, Heavener induced a flyout to right to allow LSU to take a run-rule win and strand a total of nine Mizzou batters on the bases. Although the boast of a shutout victory might have been spoiled for Tiger fans watching, LSU’s confidence in its victory radiated from the broadcast.
“We all work really hard during the week to come out here and just play our game,” Heavener said on SEC Network following the win. “I don’t think it really matters away or home, we play LSU softball. We’re gonna come out here and fight for every inning, every pitch. It’s just great to be on the road and be able to get the win.”
LSU now advances to 24-12 on the season and 5-8 in conference play. The Tigers also got ahead in their record on the road, moving to 5-4 as they snapped Mizzou’s five-game win streak.
Game 2 will continue Friday at 3 p.m. CT with LSU looking to claim its second conference series win.
