The No. 24
Florida Softball team (38-22, 14-13 SEC) scattered five hits in a 5-0 loss to
the No. 10 LSU Tigers (48-9, 21-6 SEC) on Sunday at Tiger
Park in Baton Rouge, La. The Gators were aggressive
at the plate, but were not able to get the timely hits to put runs across.
Florida’s five hits came from the top five
batters in the lineup. Junior Lauren Roussell (Cerritos,
Calif.) also drew two walk from
Turner to help the Gator cause.
LSU struck
first in the bottom of the first. Lauren Castle led of with a base hit up the
middle. Camille Harris drew a walk from Florida
junior pitcher Stacey Stevens (Gainesville, Fla.)
Both runners advanced on a Stephanie Hill sacrifice bunt. Leslie Klein grabbed
a two-RBI double to left to put the Tiger ahead 2-0.
Vanessa Soto drew a walk to put runners on first and second once again. The
Gator defense took care of business from there as they retired Soto at second
on a fielder’s choice play and Stevens struck out Lauren Delahoussaye
for the final out of the inning.
Junior Melissa Zick
(Tampa, Fla.)
led off the Gator half of the second with a base hit just over the head of the
Tiger third baseman for the first Florida
hit of the day.
LSU scored
a run on four Gator errors in the bottom of the fourth to take a 3-0 lead.
The Gators
attempted a two-out rally in the top of the fifth. Freshman Kim Waleszonia
(Fontana, Calif.)
sparked the Gators with a bunt single. Senior Lindsey Cameron (Palm Beach Gardens,
Fla.) followed with a bloop
single to shallow left, but LSU was able to get the final out of the inning to
end the Florida
rally.
The Tigers
went up 5-0 on a sacrifice fly by Quinlan Duhon and a
two-out double by Delahoussaye in the bottom of the
fifth.
A lead off
base hit from Andrea Smith, brought in Florida freshman reliever Stacey Nelson (Los Alamitos, Calif.).
Nelson and the Gators defense allowed only one more Tiger on base before ending
the inning.
Stevens
record moves to 17-6 on the year with the loss. Turner improves to 22-5 with
the win for LSU.
Florida will have this next week off for finals before returning to
action against South Carolina
on May 6 and 7. The Gators remain in fifth place in the conference heading into
the final Southeastern Conference series of the season will begin with a
Saturday doubleheader at 1 p.m. Sunday’s single game also begins at 1 p.m.
