With junior Amanda Doyle on first base and senior Shemiah Sanchez on second with two outs, Louisiana State University senior Elyse Thornhill knocked a homerun over the center field wall in the top of the third inning to widen the Tigers’ early lead to 5-0.
Texas A&M softball was unable to overcome No. 10 LSU’s offensive prowess as the Aggies fell 7-0 in game two of the series on Saturday.
The A&M offense remained stagnant through the fifth inning, recording only two hits. LSU sophomore pitcher Shelbi Sunseri was on the mound for all seven innings and had two strikeouts.
A&M head coach Jo Evans said Sunseri’s pitching success was due to A&M under performing at the plate.
“I thought we just had a lot of poor at-bats,” Evans said. “[Sunseri] did a good job of throwing that ball down and we just kept biting on it. We just did a really poor job of making any adjustment at the plate.”
Senior Riley Sartain said Sunseri wasn’t throwing any tricky pitches, but that the A&M batters were simply unable to read what she was throwing.
“I don’t think it was that she made it difficult to hit,” Sartain said. “I think we made it difficult to hit. I think we knew what she was throwing, we just weren’t able to make the necessary adjustments to attack the pitches that we needed to attack.”
The Aggies finally found some fire in the sixth inning with a single by Sartain. A throwing error by LSU allowed Fortenberry to advance to third and Sartain to second with two outs; however, a ground out by Klingler stomped A&M’s chances of a late rally.
Sartain said that as a leader, she tries not to allow the team to fall into a slump following several losses.
“[We] just have to grind out,” Sartain said. “Of course, nobody like to lose — losing isn’t fun — but it’s one of those things that you really just have to keep battling, keep pushing, and fight your way out.”
Evans added that the team keeping their confidence will be crucial moving forward.
“It’s easy to start second-guessing yourself, and it’s not a way you want to play the game,” Evans said. “It makes you tentative going to make a great play on defense, and it makes you more susceptible at the plate.”
A&M fared better on the mound in game two as Payton McBride allowed six runs on twelve hits and three strikeouts, while Kendall Potts allowed one run on two hits and one strikeout, compared to the Tigers’ 17 runs on Friday.
Evans said that she was proud of the duo’s work on the mound, despite the end score.
“I think McBride threw a pretty good game today, and our defense didn’t take good care of her,” Evans said. “Potts came in and threw really well. We needed her to come in and throw strikes and give a different look. She did.”
The Tigers got off to a quick start, as senior Amanda Sanchez hit a two-run homerun in the first inning that allowed junior Aliyah Andrews to score.
The Sanchez-Andrews tandem combined again for a single in the sixth inning to pad LSU’s lead with another score.
LSU sophomore Taryn Antoine added a ground out in the top of the seventh inning that allowed the Tigers’ final score of the night.
The Aggies will face LSU in the final installment of the series at 3 p.m. on Sunday at Davis Diamond.