LSU softball team wins share of tournament title

A walk-off RBI single by Killian Roessner in the bottom of the eighth inning scored Jazz Jackson and gave the 10th-ranked LSU softball team a 2-1 win over South Florida on Sunday at the Eddie C. Moore Softball Complex to claim a share of the Under Armour Showcase championship.

The Lady Tigers (24-4) posted a perfect record (4-0) in the tournament with wins over Fordham, 8-3, and Oklahoma State, 2-0, on Friday and Purdue, 4-0, on Saturday.

With the game using the international tie-breaker rule in the eighth, Jackson began the bottom half of the inning on second. She moved to third on a roped single to centerfield that pushed Jackson to third. Roessner then came up with a nearly identical single to centerfield to score Jackson and give the Tigers the 2-1 victory.

Dani Hofer (12-2) earned the complete-game win on Sunday. She allowed a run on a solo home run, four other hits, three walks and struck out a career-high 16 batters, including two with the go-ahead run at third base in the eighth. From the third out of the fifth to the second out of the seventh, Hofer struck out six straight.

The Tigers will return to conference play next week. LSU will host Auburn in a three-game series at Tiger Park. Due to Easter Sunday, the series will be played on Friday and Saturday. The Tigers will square off on Friday with a doubleheader beginning at 5 p.m. before concluding the series with a single game on Saturday at 1 p.m.

BASEBALL TEAM SWEPT BY TENNESSEE

The LSU baseball team lost both games of a doubleheader on Sunday to Tennessee by identical scores to drop their fifth consecutive game.

The Tigers (11-6) had won 11 of their first 12 games to start the season, but were swept in the first SEC series of the season. The three-game victory was the first time in school history that the Vols have ever swept the Tigers in baseball.

Friday’s game was the closest as LSU fell, 6-5. In that contest, Matt Clark hit a solo home run, but starter Jared Bradford (3-1) allowed six hits, six runs and had nine strikeouts in the first five innings. The Tigers made a charge with four runs in the last three innings, but it was not enough.

Rain on Saturday forced a pair of games on Sunday. In the first game on Sunday, Clark had another home run and starter Ryan Verdugo (3-1) was unable to get out of the second inning as he allowed five hits and two earned runs in the 2.2 innings. Reliever Jordan Brown allowed three hits and two runs in the final 3.1 innings (both games on Sunday were seven-inning contests).

In the final game of the series, LSU trailed 3-2 until tying the game in the top of the seventh on a solo home run by Michael Hollander.

However, reliever Daniel Bradshaw was tagged with the loss after allowing four runs on a game-ending grand slam. The blown save was Bradshaw’s first of the season and the game-winning hit was the only one allowed in eight batters faced in the contest.

LSU will play host to Tulane in Baton Rouge at 6:30 p.m. and then play Arkansas at home this weekend (Friday, 7 p.m.; Saturday, 3 p.m.; Sunday 1 p.m.). Cox Sports will televise Friday and Sunday’s games.

LADY TIGERS WILL BE PLAYING HOST TO FIRST AND SECOND ROUNDS OF NATIONAL TOURNAMENT

Whatever seed the LSU women’s basketball team earns, the team will be playing its first game of the Women’s NCAA Tournament at home. The Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge will be one of 16 venues in the country to play host to first- and second-round tournament games. No. 5 LSU stands at 27-5 and went undefeated in the SEC regular season this season.

The Lady Tigers fell to Tennessee in the SEC Tournament Championship game. The squad, which consists of nine seniors including All-American Sylvia Fowles, is attempting to qualify for its fifth consecutive Women’s Final Four appearance. This year’s event will be in Tampa, Fla., on April 6 and 8.

LSU’s Killian Roessner had a walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the eighth inning scored Jazz Jackson Sunday, giving the 10th-ranked LSU softball team a 2-1 win over South Florida. The team claimed a share of the Under Armour Showcase championship. * Photo courtesy of LSU/STEVE FRANZ