LSUE Sweeps Southwest Mississippi Community College
The Lady Bengals hosted Southwest Mississippi Community College Wednesday and came away with two close victories.
Game one proved to be a pitcher’s duel between LSU Eunice freshman Leah Andrus (St. Edmund) and SMCC freshman Ashlyn Grisaffe (Ascension Catholic).
The Lady Bengals jumped out to an early lead, scoring their two runs in the first two innings. Leadoff hitter Karli Wainwright walked to start the first inning, scoring after singles by Chaney Trahan and Chasity Gary and a sacrifice fly by Heather Abshire.
In the second inning Cat Danos lead off the inning with a single and was moved over by Jenny Moneaux’s sacrifice bunt. One out later Chaney Trahan singled again, scoring Danos. Andrus made the two runs hold up as she pitched a two hit shutout, while getting stellar defensive play from her teammates.
The only time the Lady Bears threatened was when Christina Campbell’s hit eluded a diving Chaney Trahan in the sixth inning, giving Campbell a triple, but she was caught trying stretch her hit to home as Trahan’s throw from the fence was relayed to catcher Jenny Moneaux by second baseman Haley McCall. The only other Lady Bear that attempted to get past second base was Angelia Polk who reached on their only walk of the game, then advanced to second on a wild pitch. She was erased trying to advance when short stop Sam Bella made a diving stop up the middle, recovered, then threw to Chasity Gary at third base for the out. Gary made a play of her own two batters later when she scooped up a ground ball, stepped on third then threw to first base for the inning ending double play.
Andrus finished with four strike-outs improving her record to 7-2 while lowering her team leading era to 1.59.
In the second game of the day, pitchers Stacey Sutton (East St. John) and former West Monroe Rebel freshman Whitney Moore dueled it out. Sutton, a sophomore, pitched three shutout innings allowing only one base runner on a passed ball third strike, before Southwest broke the scoreless tie in the fourth inning.
With one out in the fourth inning, a Bear batter was hit by a pitch then scored on a double to right field. One out later another Bear scored on only the Bears second hit of the game. That score held up until the seventh inning when the, never say die, Lady Bengals started the inning with a single by Chasity Gary. Ashley Parr came in to pinch run, then moved to second on a wild pitch. Cat Danos then reached base on a throwing error by the Rebel third baseman that found its way into the Bear dugout, scoring Parr. One out later, Bella reached on an infield single scoring Danos and the game was tied at the end of seven innings.
Lanie Hollier, who had relieved Sutton in the top of the seventh, was in the game when the International Tie Breaker commenced in the top of the eighth inning. The Rebel runner, who started the inning on second base as part of the tie breaker, advanced on a sacrifice bunt, then scored on a single. Hollier then proceeded to strike out the next two batters to end the inning. In the bottom of the eighth, the Lady Bengals’ center fielder, and leadoff hitter Karli Wainwright started at second base and advanced to third on Chaney Trahan’s bunt single. Wainwright then scored on a groundout by Haley Sanchez tying the game again, while Trahan advanced to third base.
During the next at bat, the catcher tried to throw out Trahan who was off of third, and Trahan raced home scoring the winning run on an overthrow to home by the Bear third baseman.
