The No. 24 Florida Softball team (38-21, 14-12 SEC) had a heartbreaking day against the No. 10 LSU Tigers (47-9, 20-6 SEC) at Tiger Park in Baton Rouge, La. on Saturday afternoon. The Gators fell 2-0 in game one, but made a strong comeback in game two to come from behind and pull ahead 6-3 before a controversial bottom of the seventh led to a 7-6 loss.

Freshman Stacey Nelson (Los Alamitos, Calif.) came in to replace junior starter Stacey Stevens (Gainesville, Fla.) with one out and two runners on in the bottom of the seventh of game two. A Stephanie Hill base hit loaded the bases. Leslie Klein reached on a fielder’s choice and Dee Dee Henderson scored on a Gator error on a controversial call. The home plate umpire, Scott Brians, originally called Henderson out at home for what would have been the second out of the inning, but after a conference with the umpire crew, the call was overturned and Henderson was called safe, putting LSU within two at 6-4. A Vanessa Soto sacrifice fly to center brought the Tigers within one. A Quinlan Duhon base hit scored pinch runner Shannon Stein from second to tie the game. A walk to Lauren Delahoussaye loaded the bases with Tigers again. Killian Roessner grabbed the game-winning hit with a base hit to left to end the game with a 7-6 LSU win.

Clutch Gator hitting in the fourth and fifth innings helped Florida come from a 3-0 deficit to take a 6-3 lead. Senior Lindsey Cameron (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.) led off the Gator half of the fourth with a base hit through the left side. Senior Kristen Butler (Orlando, Fla.) walked to put two Gators on with no outs in the inning. Freshman Alicia Spack (West Lafayette, Ind.) came in to pinch run for Butler. With two outs and a 1-2 count, junior Lauren Roussell (Cerritos, Calif.) hit her fourth home run of the season to tie the game at 3-3.

With one out in the top of the fifth, senior Stacie Pestrak (Gainesville, Fla.) and freshman Kim Waleszonia (Fontana, Calif.) laid down beautiful bunt singles to put runners on first and second for the Gators’ big hitters. Cameron did her job as she knocked her 10th home run of the season over the fence in left field to put the Gators up 6-3. LSU replaced starter Dani Hofer with Megan Jolly in the pitching circle.

LSU went up early in game two as they scored two runs in the bottom of the first. Lauren Castle led off with a bunt single. With one out, Stephanie Hill poked a base hit to shallow right center. Both runners came in on a Vanessa Soto triple to center to put LSU in the lead 2-0.

A Roessner lead off home run in the second gave the Tigers a 3-0 lead.

In game one, LSU’s Soto and Duhon grabbed back-to-back base hits to lead off the bottom of the second. Both runners moved into scoring position on a sacrifice by Delahoussaye. An Andrea Smith double scored both runners for a 2-0 Tiger lead with two outs in the inning.

Florida put a runner on base in every inning except the second and seventh, but was not able to get the timely hits to turn those base runners into runs. The Gators best chance to score in game one came in the top of the first. Waleszonia reached base on a LSU error to lead off the inning. Butler drew a walk from LSU pitcher Emily Turner. Junior Melissa Zick (Tampa, Fla.) dropped a bunt single to load the bases with only one out in the inning, but the Gators were not able to put a run across.

The Gator defense took care of business as they did not allow a LSU runner to second base after the second inning.

Nelson took the loss for the Gators in both games to move her record to 12-12 on the year. Turner struck out 12 Gators in game one for LSU to improve her record to 21-5. LSU reliever Jolly improved to 6-0 with the game two win.

The two teams will play the final game of the series Sunday at 2 p.m. ET. The game will air live on GatorZone.com via yahoo.com.