BATON ROUGE, La. – The Texas A&M softball team (20-5, 1-2 SEC) dropped the series finale against the LSU Tigers (18-8, 4-2 SEC), 4-1, Monday night at Tiger Park.
The Maroon & White were able to get on the board first in the top of the second inning with a RBI single by Ashlynn Walls.
Walls, Bre Warren, Kelbi Fortenberry and Trinity Cannon all recorded a hit.
The Aggies held a 1-0 lead until the Tigers plated four in the bottom of the fifth on a series of walks, passed balls and an error.
In the circle, Kelsey Broadus earned her fifth start of the season and her first SEC start of her career. The Albany, Oregon, native pitched 4.1 innings, allowing just two hits on two runs, one of which was unearned and striking out six. Makinzy Herzog threw the remainder of the game and did not allow a hit.
LSU’s Ali Kilponen tossed the complete 7.0 innings and tallied nine strikeouts to pick up her fifth win of the year.
KEY INNINGS
T2 | Kelbi Fortenberry singled and then moved to second on a passed ball. Ashlynn Walls singled to centerfield and Fortenberry scored. A&M 1, LSU 0
B5 | Ali Newland walked and Taryn Antoine pinch ran for her. Cait Calland walked and Aliyah Andrews hit a hard ground ball through the left side that scored Antoine as Calland advanced to third. Calland scored on a passed ball and Andrews moved to second. Taylor Pleasants and Shelbi Sunseri walked. Aliyah Andrews scored on a wild pitch and Pleasants and Sunseri advanced. Pleasants would then score on an A&M throwing error. LSU 4, A&M 1
Top Offensive Players:
Bre Warren| 1-for-3
Kelbi Fortenberry| 1-for-3
Ashlynn Walls| 1-for-3, RBI
Trinity Cannon| 1-for-2
Pitching Breakdown:
Kelsey Broadus (3-2) – 4.1 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 6 SO, 4 BB
Makinzy Herzog – 1.2 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 SO, 4 BB
WHAT THEY SAID
Head Coach Jo Evans
Opening statement…
“I thought Kelsey Broadus pitched really well tonight. She kept their hitters off balance and did a really nice job attacking their hitters. She got in trouble there in the fifth inning, walking the first two batters. It was unfortunate because the kid threw really well. We had a couple passed balls there in that situation, which is very uncharacteristic of us and just not taking care of the ball. We let them score four runs on one hit, a bunch of walks and some passed balls. I’m not happy with that inning and how we managed that, but overall on the day, I thought we managed ourselves pretty well. Offensively we get the run really early and we get the lead. We kept pressure on them, but we’ve got to be able to score more runs for our pitchers. We don’t want them feeling like they have to throw shutouts every day to win a ball game.”
On the SEC home opener on Friday…
“I told our kids the most important thing right now is to not get discouraged. We expect to win and we came here to LSU against a very good ball club and had our chance to win a couple of ball games. We had a chance to win a series and we’ve got to remember that. What I expect from our team is to just keep learning. Keep learning, keep growing, getting more emotionally and mentally mature in how we manage what goes on in a game. That’s going to be the opportunity to win big games in the end. It’s a long season and we’ve got seven more series. It’s important to me that our kids learn from this. That we take away that we can play with these teams. We don’t want to get ourselves in a situation where we feel like we have to be perfect. We don’t have to be perfect, but we’ve got to be able to execute and manage the pressure.”
ON DECK
Texas A&M returns home to Bryan-College Station to host South Carolina Friday, March 26 through Sunday, March 28 at Davis Diamond.
STAY CONNECTED
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Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics