| women's BASkEtBALL RESULTS |
Alabama 8, UAB 1
|
LSU 7, SE Louisiana 0
|
No. 2 Alabama Concludes Road Trip with 8-1 Win over UAB
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The No. 2 ranked Alabama softball team wrapped up its season opening road trip with an 8-1 victory over UAB, Tuesday evening at the UAB Softball Field. With the victory the Crimson Tide improve to 8-0 on the season while the Blazers drop to 5-6 overall.
Alabama outhit UAB, 8-3, and were led at the plate by freshman Danae Hays, who batted 2-for-3 and drove in two runs. Junior Kayla Braud scored two runs, walked three times and stole three bases.
Sophomore Ryan Iamurri got things started for Alabama by driving in the first run of the ball game. With two outs in the top of the second, Iamurri battled and on the 11th pitch of the at bat she lined a single into left field to score junior Courtney Conley. UA added another in the frame when senior Kendall Dawson was able to score on a double steal.
Alabama added three more in the third to move its lead to 5-0. Conley started the inning with an RBI single up the middle to score pinch-runner Keima Davis. Hays then drove in two more in the very next at bat with a single of her own that went up the middle that plated senior Jazlyn Lunceford and Conley.
The Tide continued its scoring ways in the fourth inning when Braud scored on a grounder off the bat of senior Cassie Reilly-Boccia that was mishandled by the Blazer shortstop. UA added one more on the same play when an errant throw by the shortstop in attempt to get senior Jennifer Fenton out at third squirted away from the base to enable Fenton to scamper home to move the lead to 7-0.
Alabama added another run to sport an 8-1 lead by once again being aggressive on the base paths. The speedy duo of Braud and Fenton completed a double steal and on the throw to get Braud at third it trickled away from the shortstop covering the bag to enable Braud to take home.
Sophomore pitcher Jackie Traina improved to 6-0 on the season as she allowed one run on two hits and struck out nine in five innings. Freshman Leslie Jury allowed one hit and struck out one in two innings of relief.
Alabama will begin its home portion of the 2012 schedule when it hosts the Easton Bama Bash, presented by Drash, starting on Friday, Feb. 24. The Tide is scheduled to play five games over the course of the three days, welcoming East Carolina, North Dakota State and SIUE to Rhoads Stadium.
Big First Inning Powers LSU Past Southeastern Louisiana
BATON ROUGE – Allison Falcon, Ashley Langoni and Morgan Russell each collected a pair of RBIs as the LSU softball team used a five-run first inning and never looked back during a 7-0 victory over Southeastern Louisiana Tuesday at Tiger Park.
“The offense was great. I was proud of the way we came out and put five quick runs on the board,” head coach Beth Torina said. “I thought we hit some balls really well and used all parts of the field. A lot of credit goes to the Southeastern pitcher [Kenna Terry] because she made an adjustment after the first inning, and it really kept us off balance for five innings.”
LSU (5-4) won back-to-back games for the second time during the 2012 campaign and notched its fifth shutout on the young season. Russell along with Tammy Wray collected multi-hit performances to fuel a nine-hit attack for the Tigers.
LSU raced out of the gates with a five-run first inning. Ashley Applegate drew a leadoff walk and advanced to third base on an Allison Falcon sacrifice bunt aided by a throwing error by SLU first baseman Ariell Van Hook.
On a 3-2 offering, Langoni cleared the bases and belted a two-run double down the right field line for the game’s first runs. A Lady Lion fielding error on second baseman Megan McCollum allowed Langoni to cross the plate and push the Tiger advantage to 3-0.
With two outs and runners in scoring position, Russell ended a 1-for-15 stretch as she deposited a two-run single to right field to make it 5-0.
That would be more than enough run support for Brittany Mack. She bounced back after allowing six runs during her last outing Sunday against No. 3 California and twirled a three-hit shutout. The senior right-hander notched six strikeouts against one walk and moved to 2-3 for the season.
Southeastern Louisiana’s (1-8) Kenna Terry was tagged with the loss and has dropped all four of her decisions in 2012. She surrendered seven runs, four earned, on nine hits in 5.1 innings of work.
The Tigers added two more runs in the sixth inning for the final margin of 7-0. With two on and two out, Falcon smoked a single up-the-middle to extend her career-long hitting streak to six games.
“It is a process, and it is continuing to get better each day,” Russell said. “Extra work, extra hitting and extra fielding; everything we do we need to keep doing. I think we are doing a good job right now, and I think that if we can just continue getting better each game and progress, there is no doubt that we will be in the College World Series come June.”
LSU continues its five-game homestand Saturday and squares off with South Alabama at 12:30 p.m. followed by a 3 p.m. tilt with McNeese State to open the Tiger Invitational.
“It is definitely a big week for us,” Torina said. “Put us on the positive because the following week [in Oklahoma] we have a really challenging schedule again. Not an easy weekend this weekend either. South Alabama and McNeese State are very quality opponents. They have played a good schedule, both have done some good things. It is a really big week for us so I feel like tonight was a big win to get us to the positive side.”
Follow every pitch of the Tiger Invitational via live stats on www.LSUsports.net/livestats. Fans also can receive live in-game updates on LSU softball's social media outlets at www.Facebook.com/lsusoftball and @lsu_softball on Twitter.
LSU softball will be collecting new packs of pencils all weekend long at the fan zone on the concourse. The Tigers will donate the items gathered to USA Softball's Pencil Drive when the team travels to the Preview Tournament in early March.