BATON ROUGE, La. – The Central Arkansas softball team returned to Tiger Park for a Tuesday doubleheader against No. 11 Louisiana State.
Lexi McClellan led the Bears with two hits on the day.
Central Arkansas falls to 3-7 on the season, while LSU improves to 7-3. The Bears fell 3-0 in game one and 2-0 in game two.
Game One LSU 3, UCA 0
After back-to-back two-out walks in bottom of the first,
Kristen Whitehouse made a diving stop on a hard-hit ground ball up the middle and then made a smooth glove flip to second for the third out of the inning.
Ciara Briggs led the home half of the second with a triple off of the left field wall. Two batters later, Briggs scored on a sac fly deep in foul territory on the right field line. The Tigers held a 1-0 lead after two innings of play.
Kaylyn Shepherd led the top of the fourth off with a five-pitch walk.
Cylla Hill followed with a single to the shortstop.
Megan Crownover and
Lindsey Williams came in to pinch run for Shepherd and Hill, respectively. The Bears had runners on first and second with no outs, but three consecutive fielder's choices ended the inning for UCA.
McClellan started the top of the fifth with a bunt single to third base. After a ground out by
Tremere Harris moved McClellan to second,
Jenna Wildeman drew a walk to put runners on first and second with one out. After a fielder's choice gave UCA runners on first and third,
Reagan Sperling stole second and gave the Bears runners on second and third. Like the fourth, Central Arkansas was unable to capitalize with runners in scoring position.
Aliyah Andrews singled to third base to start the bottom of the sixth for LSU. She stole second and moved into scoring position. Two batters later, Amanda Doyle singled though the left side and scored Andrews from third. After a walk, Georgia Clark singled through the left side and score Akiya Thymes from second and gave LSU a 3-0 lead after six innings of play.
McClellan led the Bears at the plate with a 2-for-3 day. Hill and
Tylar Vernon each added a single. Shepherd drew two of UCA's four walks.
Rio Sanchez pitched a complete game, but recorded the loss. She falls to 1-2 on the year. She recorded three strikeouts in the six innings of work. She gave up three earned runs on four hits.
Shelby Wickersham picked up the win for LSU and improved to 2-1 on the season. She struck out six batters with four walks and scattered four hits.
Doyle, Clark, and Taylor Tidwell all recorded RBIs for the Tigers.
Game Two LSU 2, UCA 0
Andrews led the bottom of the first for the Tigers and then stole second. Taylor Pleasants blasted a home run to left field and gave LSU the 2-0 lead.
The remainder of the game was a pitcher's duel as both
Jordan Johnson and Ali Kilponen finished the rest of the game without giving up any runs.
Johnson only gave up two earned runs in the first, but settled down the remainder of the game. She struck out three batters and walked three. Wildeman,
Erin Blackburn, and
Jaylee Engelkes finished the game with hits.
Kilponen finished the game with 14 strikeouts and improved to 1-1 on the season. Pleasants provided the only runs with her two-run homer.
The Bears will be at home for the Michelle Short Memorial Classic, which begins on Thursday, Feb. 25, instead of the originally scheduled, Friday, Feb. 26. UCA begins the tournament with a 9:30 a.m. contest with Omaha on Feb. 25.
From the Coach – Head Coach David Kuhn
"We played well enough to win, but in the end, we couldn't get the timely hits when we needed them. I'm proud of our team for the way they battled through adversity tonight. We didn't get the results we would have liked, but we learned a lot about our team."
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