April 21, 2002
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Junior Lyndsey Angus’ one-out, bottom of the seventh home run knotted the game at 1-1 but the Louisiana State bats came alive in the top of the eighth as the No. 5 (USA Today/NFCA) Tigers defeated host Kentucky, 4-2, in eight innings on Sunday, April 21 at the UK Softball Complex. The win gave LSU the Southeastern Conference softball series sweep and bumped the Tigers record up to 40-8, 20-3 while the Wildcats fall to 21-26, 3-15 SEC.
LSU All-American pitcher Britni Sneed secured her second victory of the series by limiting the Wildcats to just three hits while striking out 15 to improve to 22-5 on the year. UK senior Jennifer Howland (6-8) pitched magnificently but was saddled with the loss.
“I am so pleased with our play the entire weekend,” UK Coach Beth Kirchner said. “We put ourselves in a position to win it at the end of the game. For us to fight back against such a good team and pitcher was exciting.”
Kentucky had a very good chance to win the game in the bottom of the seventh but a spectacular backhanded, over-the-shoulder catch by LSU second baseman April Janzen on Howland’s line drive to the outfield grass just prior to Angus’ home run prevented UK scoring two in the bottom of the seventh.
With the game tied at 1-1 heading to the top of the eighth, LSU strung together four hits and were aided by three UK fielding errors to score three runs for a 4-1 advantage. Tiger centerfielder Trena Peel reached first on an error by UK shortstop Angie Dal Pozzo to start the inning and was moved over to second on Janzen’s sacrifice bunt. Then the wildness of the game took over. Christy Conner singled to right and UK’s Jessica Nance bobbled the ball as she charged in on it in right, which in turn had LSU Coach Yvette Girouard send Peel home for the first run of the inning.
Erin Johnson followed with a single to center which UK centerfielder Megan Brooks mishandled, allowing Johnson to race to third and Conner to come home. Tessa Lynam closed out the scoring as she stroked a single to left field, scoring Johnson for a 4-1 lead.
UK made some noise of its own in the bottom half of the inning. Sophomore Rachel Friberg singled to right field and moved up two bases on Megann Steege’s error in right. After Sneed sat down two via the strikeout, she fired a wild pitch, allowing Friberg to score from third. Sneed got Brooks to pop up to short to end the game.
The UK defense definitely kept the Cats in the game early as both Dal Pozzo and Friberg made spectacular play after spectacular play in the infield and the shallow outfield grass, bringing the crowd to its feet multiple times and saving at least one run in each of the first four innings. Sneed, meanwhile, was doing most of the work on the Cats attack herself, striking out 10 of the first 13 hitters she faced before Eilertson hit a one-out single to center for UK’s first hit of the game.
The Cats, which fell to 0-12 all-time against LSU, will try to stop their seven-game conference losing streak on Wednesday, April 24 when they play a doubleheader at No. 25 (USA Today/NFCA) Georgia. The twin bill is set to start at 4 p.m. EDT.
LSU 00010003- 4 9 1Kentucky 00000011-2 3 3WP: Sneed (22-5). LP: Howland (6-8). S: none.
-UK-
