LSU literally made an imprint at Tiger Park on Sunday by bringing its power game to the NCAA Baton Rouge softball regional championship game, both at the plate and in the circle.
The Tigers defeated Southern Illinois 9-0 to advance to the super regionals thanks to three home runs, one of which was hit by Karli Petty and warped the pixels on the scoreboard’s video screen.
The mercy rule ended the game after pitcher Kelley Lynch’s five-inning one-hitter cemented LSU’s supremacy. Bailey Caylor of SIU broke ruined Lynch’s no-hit bid in the fifth inning with a single with two outs. To end the game, Lynch got Rylinn Groff, the next hitter. To begin the game, the lone other SIU baserunner arrived on foot from Elizabeth Warwick.
Lynch pitched 75 pitches and struck out six. In 19 innings of their three regional victories, LSU’s pitching surrendered just one run.
With the win, the Tigers (43-15) advance to the Women’s College World Series by playing a best-of-three best-of-three series in a super regional the following weekend. LSU has made ten trips to the super regionals.
For the Tigers, Maci Bergeron and Taylor Pleasants both hit home runs. Pleasants highlighted a five-run second inning with a three-run home run, her 10th and second of the regional. In the third, Bergeron scored twice with a single. Petty scored her second RBI of the day after recording her sixth home run off the scoreboard after one out.
Ciara Briggs scored a run with a sacrifice fly, while Raeleen Gutierrez also scored two runs for LSU.
