April 19, 2014
COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina could not rebound after the halting of the contest on Friday, as No. –/24 LSU (26-19, 7-9 SEC) scored six runs on Saturday in a 13-5 win over the Gamecocks in the split first game of the series at Carolina Softball Stadium at Beckham Field.
The Tigers, who held a 7-5 lead with the bases loaded and one out in the fourth when the game was called due to rain on Friday, ended the fourth quickly on the restart. Allison Falcon hit a fly to right that Gamecock senior Chelsea Hawkins caught. Hawkins fired home, and the throw beat Savannah Jaquish to end the frame.
LSU, however, scored one run in each the fifth and sixth. Dylan Supak had a two-out, pinch-hit RBI single in the fifth, scoring Tammy Wray, while Wray’s grounder in the sixth scored Kellsi Kloss to make it 9-5. Four more Tiger runs crossed in the seventh, with Kloss plating one on a grounder and Sandra Simmons another on a hit off the top of the wall in the right-field corner. Wray singled home Kloss, and Falcon scored the final run on an infield grounder.
Simmons singled home a run in the fourth on Friday before play halted, which gave LSU the 7-5 lead coming into Saturday’s resumption.
LSU’s Ashley Czechner (9-10) got the complete-game win, allowing five earned runs on 10 hits and two walks. She struck out eight. Gamecock freshman Nickie Blue (15-7) took the loss, giving up 11 runs, 10 earned, on 11 hits and six walks in 5.1 innings, fanning five.
On Friday, the Gamecocks had a three-run third to draw within a run. Junior catcher Sarah Mooney doubled home two with two outs, and after moving to third on a wild pitch, Mooney scored on senior second baseman Dana Hathorn’s RBI single.
A one-out walk to Falcon got the Tiger offense started in the second, and Wray followed with a single as the rain came down in Columbia. Bailey Landry took the 1-1 pitch to right and made it a double, scoring Falcon. A.J. Andrews drove in two with a hit through the middle, and, after a strikeout, Jaquish drove a 3-2 pitch over the wall in center for her 10th homer, giving LSU the 5-0 lead.
The Gamecocks came back with two in the bottom of the second on Hathorn’s RBI single and sophomore left fielder Alaynie Page’s grounder. Hathorn’s hit brought home freshman pinch runner Mackenzie Moler, who ran for Mooney after her one-out single. Hawkins walked after Mooney’s hit and got to third on the Hathorn single.
The Tigers got a two-out RBI single from Landry in the third to push the lead to 6-2, with Wray scoring after tripling off the top of the wall in left.
Wray led LSU with her 3-for-4 day, hitting her first career triple, scoring three times and driving home two more. Simmons went 3-for-5 with two RBI for the Tigers, while Supak and Landry both had two hits with a double.
South Carolina’s Mooney went 3-for-4, the third three-hit day in her Gamecock career, with a double, two RBI and a run scored. Seniors Ashlyn Masters and Dana Hathorn both went 2-for-4, Hathorn driving in two and Masters hitting her 18th double of the year. The sixth-inning double tied Masters for second in Gamecock history with both Kaitlin Westfall and Dana Fulmer on the single-season list. Hawkins walked twice in a 1-for-2 day.
