Gamecocks Drop Series Opener At LSU
BATON ROUGE, LA. —- No. 16 South Carolina softball dropped a hard-fought 8-5 game in the series opener at No. 8 LSU on Friday night at Tiger Park. The Gamecocks tied the game at 4-4 in the top of the fourth but the Tigers responded with four runs over the next two frames to help secure the win.
The Gamecocks jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the first inning but LSU scored eight runs over the next four innings as Carolina dropped to 5-24 all-time in Baton Rouge.
With the win, LSU improved to 8-2 in SEC play while Carolina moved to 2-7.
South Carolina (24-9, 2-7 SEC) showed it wouldn’t back down in a rocking environment at Tiger Park as it jumped out to an early 2-0 lead before the first three outs of the game were recorded.
Kenzi Maguire tripled the second at-bat of the game to score Mackenzie Boesel from first to make it 1-0 Carolina just two batters into the contest. Cayla Drotar’s sacrifice fly out two batters later gave the Gamecocks a 2-0 lead through one.
LSU (30-6, 8-2) showed why Tiger Park is one of the toughest visiting venues in the country shortly after with three runs in the bottom of the second to take a 3-2 lead. It later added another run in the third to extend its advantage to 4-2 through three.
South Carolina wouldn’t go down that easy, though. A Kennedy Clark double and Lauren Stewart home run to start the fourth tied the contest at 4-4.
From there, the Tigers took over scoring two more in the bottom of the fourth to take the lead once more at 6-4. Two more runs in the fifth made it 8-4, LSU, heading to the sixth.
Carolina loaded the bases with one out in the top of the seventh and scored a run thanks to an Alexis Lindsey RBI but LSU found a way to escape with the victory in the end.
Kelsey Oh (3-3) took the loss in the circle for Carolina.
Stewart led the way at the plate, going 3-for-4 with two RBI and a run scored. Clark finished the night 3-for-4 with a run scored. Carolina posted 11 hits on the night as Boesel, Maguire, Drotar, Jordan Fabian and Madison Owens added hits during the game.
With a trio of hits, Clark and Stewart became the first Gamecocks with three hits in an SEC game this season.
- With a single in the top of the fourth, Madison Owens recorded her first career SEC hit.
- With three hits on the night, Kennedy Clark and Lauren Stewart became the first two Gamecocks with two multi-hit games in conference play this season. Stewart also had her first multi-RBI SEC contest of the year.
- The 11 hits are the most South Carolina has had in an SEC game this season.
- Carolina struck out just three times in the Friday night game at LSU, which was its second-fewest in an SEC game this season. Carolina struck out just twice against Kentucky on 3/9.
- The Gamecocks moved to 2-2 against LSU in the last four meetings.
