Alabama Softball Defeats No. 19 LSU, 6-0
3/25/2005 12:00:00 AM | Softball
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BATON ROUGE, LA — Stephanie VanBrakle allowed only one hit in five innings and struck out eight while walking none in picking up her 50th career win as the No. 10 University of Alabama softball team defeated No. 19 LSU 6-0 Friday night at Tiger Park in Baton Rouge.
With the victory, the Crimson Tide improved to 34-7 on the season, 7-3 in Southeastern Conference play. LSU fell to 17-9, 1-6 in the SEC.
VanBrakle was masterful from the start in picking up her 15th win of the season allowing just a leadoff single to Stephanie Hill to start the second inning, and never running into any trouble.
Emily Turner took the loss for the Tigers, who pitched all three of their pitchers, allowing three earned runs in three innings of work falling to 8-5 for the season.
The Alabama offense jumped out to an early 2-0 lead when Staci Ramsey was granted new life thanks to an illegal pitch from Turner. Ramsey had flown out to left field, however an illegal pitch was called and three pitches later, the third baseman from Houston connected for a two run homer off the left field foul pole, scoring Ashley Courtney who reached on a double off the glove of the first baseman to begin the game for Alabama.
Courtney extended Alabama's lead to 3-0 in the top of the third when she hit her fourth homer of the season to dead center field off of Turner.
Emily Currie doubled home VanBrakle and Dani Woods to extend the lead to 5-0 in the top of the sixth inning. Following Currie's double, Leah White and Katie Johnson each drew walks to load the base. Courtney picked up her second RBI of the night when she was struck in the hip by a Megan Jolly pitch to bring Currie home and give Alabama a 6-0 lead.
The Crimson Tide cruised over the final two innings as Chrissy Owens came on in relief of VanBrakle and allowed just one hit over the final two stanzas.
The three game set will conclude Saturday with a double header beginning at 11:00 a.m. The twin bill was originally slated to begin at 2:00 p.m. but was moved up because of the potential threat of rain. Live stats and the radio broadcast of the games will be available at http://www.rolltide.com/. The broadcast will also be available in the Tuscaloosa area on WVUA 90.7 FM.
