April 7, 2007
BATON ROUGE, La. – South Carolina softball was held to just two hits as Dani Hofer (17-1) led the fifth-ranked LSU Tigers to a 2-0 victory over the Gamecocks Satruday and clinched the series win, 2-1. With the loss, the Gamecocks fall to 26-15, 4-10 in the SEC and the Tigers improved to 39-6, 14-3 in the SEC. Melissa Hendon (11-10) took the loss as she gave up two runs on seven hits and had seven strikeouts in six innings pitched.
Despite giving up two runs in the first inning, Hendon and the Gamecocks settled down and kept the runs to a minimum.
Ashton Payne singled to start off the game and the Gamecocks appeared to have the momentum in their favor, but that would end up being the only hit South Carolina recorded until the seventh inning. After the single, Hofer pitched four perfect innings and retired 17 straight batters before the Gamecocks got another base runner.
The Tigers jumped out early in the first with four hits in the inning, including two doubles. LSU leadoff runner Jazz Jackson drew a walk to start the inning for the Tigers, however, after moving the bases, Jackson was eventually thrown out at home on a relay play by Adele Voigt, Lindsay Walker and McKenna Hughes for the first out. LSU put a run on the board when Leslie Klein doubled to score Rachel Mitchell, and went up 1-0. Tayl’r Hollis then drove in the second run with an RBI single to score Klein and the Tigers extended its lead to 2-0. LSU had a chance to score even more runs as they loaded the bases with two outs as Shannon Stein stepped to the plate. The Gamecocks were able to breathe a sigh of relief when Walker made an impressive backhand, over-the-shoulder catch to snag the hit and end the inning.
In the sixth, Payne was able to reach on an error by Kristen Hobbs with two outs and served as the Gamecocks’ second base runner of the game. South Carolina would not be able to execute and make the run count as Hofer struck out the next batter to end the inning.
The Gamecocks had one more chance to try and spark a rally and McKenna Hughes tried to ignite the flame. Hughes hit a single off of Hofer to record only the second hit of the game and the third base runner for South Carolina. The runner would be come irrelevant two batters later as pinch runner Whitney Wierzbicki was thrown out on a fielder’s choice. With two outs and one runner on, Walker drew a walk to bring the winning run to the plate in Hendon. Unfortunately, the Gamecocks were unsuccessful in trying to penetrate Hofer and on a 1-2 count, Hendon went down swinging to end the game.
The Gamecocks will now return home for back-to-back series against Georgia and Kentucky over the next two weekends. After the weekend, the Gamecocks remain fourth in the division.
LSU 2, South Carolina 0 (Apr 07, 2007 at Baton Rouge, La.)
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South Carolina…… 000 000 0 – 0 2 0 (26-15, 4-10)
LSU…………….. 200 000 X – 2 7 1 (39-6, 14-3)
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Pitchers: South Carolina – Melissa Hendon. LSU – Dani Hofer.
Win-Dani Hofer(17-1) Loss-Melissa Hendon(11-10) T-1:35 A-637
