The No.
19 Florida Softball team lost its first Southeastern Conference doubleheader of
the season Saturday afternoon in Baton
Rouge. The Gators fell to No. 10 LSU, 7-0 in the first
game of the day, and 4-1 in game two.
LSU
pushed across four runs in the bottom of the first of game one, as all nine
batters in the line up made plate appearances. The Gator defense looked good in
their first play of the game as DeeDee Henderson led
off the game with a hit just over the head of Florida
senior third baseman Melissa Zick (Tampa,
Fla.). Senior shortstop Lauren Roussell
(Cerritos, Calif.)
fielded the ball behind Zick and fired it to
sophomore second baseman Kim Waleszonia (Fontana, Calif.) as Henderson
tried to take an extra base on the play. Waleszonia
and first baseman Ali Gardiner (Waccabuc, N.Y.) connected on the run down to retire
Henderson. An error by the Gator defense leaving Jazz Jackson safe at first
following that play would prove costly and begin a LSU rally. Senior pitcher Stacey Stevens (Gainesville, Fla.)
hit Leslie Klein with a pitch. Klein and Jackson stole second and third to move
both runner sin to scoring position. Back-to-back hits by Killian Roessner and Kristen Hobbs scored the runners for a 2-0
lead. A walk to Quinlan Duhon left two more runners
on base for Vanessa Soto. Soto’s base hit scored two more runs for the 4-0 LSU
lead.
The
Tigers added three more runs in the fifth. Roessner
and Duhon scored on a Gator error. Soto crossed the
plate on a sacrifice fly from Tayl’r Hollis to increase
LSU’s lead to seven runs.
Florida had base runners in the first,
third, sixth and seventh innings, but were not able to push any runners beyond
second. Sophomore Kristina Hilberth (Dunedin, Fla.) and Waleszonia had Florida’s only hits of
the game. Hilberth dropped an infield single in front
of the catcher to lead off the third. Waleszonia
reached base in two of her three at bats. She reached in the second on a
catcher’s interference and knocked a base hit through the right side in the
sixth. Roussell did not record an at bat in the game,
but reached three times as she was hit by three pitches from LSU ace Emily
Turner.
Turner
earned the win in the game, improving her record to 9-3 on the year. Stevens
went to 8-7 in the loss for Florida,
as she gave up 10 hits. Three of the seven runs she gave up were earned.
LSU
scored the first run of game two in the bottom of the fifth. With one out, Duhon hit a double that hugged the left field line. Erica Sluss came in to pinch run for her and advanced to third on
a base hit by Soto. A Hollis base hit scored Sluss
for the 1-0 lead. On the play, Soto attempted to advance an extra base, but the
Gator defense took her out at third for the second out of the game. Florida sophomore pitcher Stacey Nelson (Los, Alamitos, Calif.)
ended the LSU threat as she struckout Andrea Smith
for the final out of the inning.
Three
straight base hits to start the bottom of the sixth plated a second LSU run.
Gardiner caught an infield pop up from Roessner for
the first out of the inning. The fourth base hit of the inning, this time from Hobbs, scored two more
runs for a 4-0 Tiger lead.
Senior Lacy Howard (League City, Texas)
broke up the shut out in the top of the seventh as she blasted a solo home run
over the fence in left center. It was her second home run of the season and the
eighth of her career.
Florida’s only other hits of the game
came from Waleszonia and Zick.
Waleszonia extended her team-leading hit streak to
six games with a base hit to lead off the fourth. Zick
followed Howard’s home run in the seventh with a base hit through the left side
on an 0-2 count.
Dani
Hofer struck out 11 Gators in the win for LSU to improve her record to 11-1 on
the year. Nelson went to 12-6 on the season in the loss. She struck out six LSU
batters, increasing her strikeout total to 115 on the season, surpassing her
mark of 111 from her freshman season.
The
series wraps up on Sunday at 2 p.m. ET at Tiger
Park in Baton Rouge.
