niversity used a hot start to top No. 1 Louisiana State University 9-4 at home Wednesday night.
The Bulldogs improved to 30-10 on the season. The game was counted as a non-conference game to ensure each side would not exceed the 24 SEC game limit. MSU has a 22-3 non-conference record.
Head Coach Vann Stuedeman earned her third win over LSU in her career.
The Bulldogs advance to 16-0 on the year when it scores first. LSU’s pitching rotation entered the game with a stout 1.37 ERA. MSU blasted the LSU pitchers for nine runs.
Senior Julia Echols scored first on the night after a single from sophomore Katie Anne Bailey brought her home. MSU used an LSU error to bring home sophomore Caroline Seitz to take a 2-0 lead in the game. The Bulldogs would not look back.
The lead would balloon to 5-0 before LSU would score its first run. LSU cut the score to 5-2 in the fifth inning.
The Bulldogs responded with a four-run inning in the sixth. Sophomore pitcher Alexis Silkwood helped her own cause by blasting an opposite field two-run home run. This was Silkwood’s third home run of the 2015 season and her sixth game with multiple RBI this season.
LSU closed out the game with a two-run seventh inning, but could never overcome the early deficit.
Silkwood, the current back-to-back SEC Pitcher of the Week, earned her 22nd win of the season with a complete game. Silkwood gave up only two earned runs and tallied two strikeouts as well. Silkwood leads the SEC in innings pitched this season and is second in strikeouts with 166.
This was only the second time the Bulldogs have ever bested a top-ranked team in the country, and the first time MSU has ever achieved this feat at home.
MSU is on a six-game winning streak riding into the Missouri series this weekend in Columbia, Missouri. This series could prove to be pivotal in the SEC Tournament seedings race, as the Bulldogs are currently one place ahead of Missouri.