Alabama
#6 LSU
Alabama Softball Falls to LSU in Series Opener, 6-2
3/11/2016 12:00:00 AM | Softball
BATON ROUGE, La. - Alabama fell behind early in its SEC opener Friday against LSU, ultimately falling 6-2 Friday night at Tiger Park.
Alabama (21-3) fell behind early to LSU (22-2) after a three-run homer in the first inning. The teams battled back and forth and every time the Crimson Tide would chip away at the lead, the Tigers would answer to pull back away. A two-run homer in the fourth inning ultimately gave LSU the final four-run margin of victory with Alabama going scoreless in each of the last three innings.
The top four in the Tide order combined for five of the team's nine hits, including a 2-4 day from Peyton Grantham. Haylie McCleney and Leona Lafaele each earned hits to extend their streaks of games reaching base safely to a career-high 15 games. Grantham and Reagan Dykes drove in the Tide's two runs and Sydney Booker, batting seventh, went 2-3 for her second multi-hit game of the season.
In the circle, Alexis Osorio (7-1) went the distance in her first loss of the season, throwing 150 pitches with six earned runs on 10 hits. LSU starter Carley Hoover (9-0) posted her ninth win of the season and was bolstered by a pair of home runs by Bianka Bell and Sahvanna Jaquish that accounted for five of the team's six runs.
LSU got its first runner on base on the first pitch with Constance Quinn being hit by a pitch to lead off the bottom half of the first. After an Emily Griggs single put two on base, Bianka Bell got the Tigers on the board with a three-run homer to straightway center. LSU would ultimately bring eight batters to the plate in the inning before strikeout ended it with the Tigers on top 3-0.
A leadoff double in the top of the second by Lafaele set up Dykes for an RBI double two batters later, slugging one to the wall in left-center to make it a 3-1 game. With the bases loaded in the bottom of the second for LSU, a bloop single by Sahvanna Jaquish moved everyone up 60 feet to extend the lead to 4-1. A strikeout and a groundout ended the inning and limited the damage as the Tigers led by three.
McCleney and Demi Turner led off the top of the third with back-to-back singles and Grantham drove in McCleney on an RBI double as Alabama now trailed 4-2 with two in scoring position and nobody out. LSU halted the momentum with two strikeouts and a groundout to strand the pair in scoring position with the lead cut to two.
LSU extended its lead to 6-2 in the bottom of the fourth with a two-run homer by Jaquish and the two teams went scoreless in the fifth and sixth innings, with Alabama facing a four-run deficit in the top of the seventh. A comeback was not in the cards however, as three groundouts ended the game.
The series continues tomorrow with game two set for a 5 p.m. CT first pitch live on the SEC Network.
