The Lady Bulldog softball team had several chances to win both games in Wednesday’s double header against LSU, but in the end the Tigers’ bats topped the Bulldogs’ pitching, which continued to struggle. The Tigers proved why they were the eighth ranked team in the country by rallying in the later innings of both games to win by the scores 4-3 in the early game and 15-13 in the nightcap.
The ladies in maroon began the day on a high note with Brooke Best launching a two-run home run in the first inning of game one.
This would be the only score in the game until the fourth inning when Tessa Lynam hit a solo home run for the Tigers. The Tigers continued their precision at the plate in the fifth inning when Sarah Fitzgerald singled down the left field line, plating two and giving the Tigers a 3-2 lead.
The Lady Tigers would never again surrender the lead to the Bulldogs, despite a late RBI hit by Iyhia McMichael in the seventh to put the Dawgs down by one, 4-3, with one out. After walking Jennifer Waterman to load the bases, the Tigers retired the next two Bulldogs in order to end the game.
Jennifer Nelson pitched a strong game with five strikeouts for the Lady Dawgs, but was rattled in the latter innings to suffer her fourth loss of the season.
The Bulldog bats looked a little timid in the opening game, getting only three runs on seven hits. But in the nightcap, the sticks came alive for the Lady Dawgs, who pounded out an incredible 17 hits in the eight-inning contest.
The Bulldogs entered their opening frame already down 1-0, but thanks to RBI’s early from Iyhia “I-Mac” McMichael, Jennifer Jessup, Blaire Brown and others, plus Krystal Tillman’s two run homer, the Bulldogs were able to amass a 9-3 lead by the end of the third inning. Pitcher Melissa Massey held the Tigers to three runs through the first four innings, but thanks to walks and errors, LSU outfielder Camille Harris cranked a grand slam in the fifth to pull the Tigers to within two runs, 9-7.
The Bulldogs answered in the bottom of the fifth, plating three more runs, but the momentum was slowly shifting in the direction of the Purple and Gold. Massey was pulled two-thirds of the way through the sixth, in favor of Stephanie Owens, who also had no answer for the now-hot bats of the LSU Tigers. Owens was relieved by Courtney Frank, who was then relived by Summer Delaneuville.
Despite the freshness of the new Bulldog hurlers, the Tigers were able to rally for three more runs in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game at 12 and send the contest into extra innings. “Once again, tonight we got no pitching. We were throwing a lot of balls all night and were behind in most of the counts early,” Coach Miller said. “We walked 11 batters tonight. You’re not going to win a game walking 11 batters. Bottom line is, we need to get some help on the mound. We’re getting the lead and we’re not holding it.”
LSU hammered out three more runs on the Bulldog staff in the eighth and final inning, where the Bulldogs conceded the game on a Jennifer Jessup strikeout, despite an RBI double for Krystal Tillman to cut the Tigers’ lead to two.
“We can’t just keep making the same mistakes over and over again,” Miller told his team following the game. “Sooner or later, we’ve got to start making some changes.”
Despite the Bulldogs’ ineffective mound presence, the Tigers didn’t run away with the game like a team of their ranking would be expected to.
“With a little pitching we could just as easily be 2-0 against them right now; we scored plenty enough runs to win the ballgame. That’s what makes it so frustrating. But the bottom line is that you either get it done or you don’t. Tonight, they got it done and we didn’t.”
The Lady Dawgs will return to action tomorrow at noon in a doubleheader against SEC-East rival Kentucky here in Starkville.