TigerBait.com - Florida softball too much for LSU

April 19, 2009

William Weathers
TigerBait.com Managing Editor

Florida's softball team is more than just the nation's top-ranked team. They're a veteran-laden squad that is also considered by some observers as a legitimate candidate to win this year's national championship.

"Yeah, they've got a shot," LSU softball coach Yvette Girouard said.

Loaded with a bevy of prodigious bats, and armed with arguably the nation's top pitcher, Florida closed out its first three-game sweep of No. 18 LSU in Baton Rouge with a convincing 12-0 mercy-rule victory Sunday before a Lady Tiger Park crowd of 1,358.

The Gators, who swept Saturday's doubleheader 3-0 and 1-0, improved to 46-3 overall and continued to polish off their Southeastern Conference regular-season championship mark of 23-1 in the league.

"It's all Florida," Girouard said. "They're very good and we didn't show up today. Not very many bright spots for the Tigers when you don't touch home plate, but no doubt this game was all Florida."

Florida pounded out 12 hits against two LSU pitchers ? including four homers ? to go along with a sterling five-hit shutout from senior All-American pitcher Stacey Nelson.

Despite the sweep, though, LSU (27-13-1, 10-9-1) managed to remain in second place in the SEC's Western Division. The Tigers travel to McNeese for a midweek game Wednesday before returning home to close out their regular season with Auburn.

"We've still got Auburn, South Carolina and the SEC Tournament," said LSU left fielder Jazz Jackson, who picked up two of her team's five hits off Nelson. "This is a very big bump in the road but it's not our last opportunity to get where we want to go. We have bigger goals than just beating Florida. We have to put this behind us as soon as possible and move on."

Florida followed a similar script to that of Saturday's first game with a two-run homer off LSU starter Cody Trahan in the top of the first inning.

First baseman Ali Gardiner hit the first of her two homers with Aja Paculba aboard, who led off the game with a single.

LSU loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the inning but failed to score and never recovered.

Jackson singled with one out, Juliana Santos walked and Ashley Applegate singled following a Rachel Mitchell strikeout. That brought up freshman first baseman Anissa Young who grounded out to Nelson who flipped the ball to first to end the inning.

The end of LSU's lone scoring threat proved fatal when Florida's big bats, coupled with a couple of LSU miscues, turned the game into a route.

The Gators increased their lead to 6-0 in the second inning when Santos, who made a highlight-reel throw from her knees to the plate in Saturday's second game for an out, allowed a potential inning-ending groundball to get through her legs and into left field for two runs. Gardiner followed with her second two-run homer ? once again to left field.

That sequence also spelled the end for Trahan (7-5) who lasted 1.2 innings. She allowed five hits, six runs (two earned), walked one and fanned three before giving way to Casey Faile who allowed the homer to Gardiner.

Florida scored six more unearned runs in the fourth after Faile was unable to cleanly field a ground ball for what would have been the second out of the inning. Instead of getting out of the inning a batter later when Gardiner popped out the Gators registered four straight hits with Kelsey Bruder and Megan Bush each homering.

"Every chance they had to swing the bat to change the game they did and we kind of didn't do that and that's where lost it," Jackson said. "That's where it got out of hand."

Mitchell was LSU's last base runner in the third against Nelson (27-3) who retired the last six batters she faced, including five by strikeout.

"You just move on," Girouard said. "Florida's been phenomenal over the last two years. They've run away with the SEC this year. We're not the only ones that they've skull drugged. They beat Georgia 15-0. They run-ruled Alabama twice. We played bad. They're much better than us right now. That's the bottom line."

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