Southern Miss
LSU (Easton Purple & Gold Challenge)
Softball Late Rally Falls Short Against No. 9 LSU
2/29/2008 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Feb. 29, 2008
BATON ROUGE, La. - Southern Miss got home runs from Lauren Castellvi, Jennifer Fox and Brittney Pigott and a solid relief pitching effort from Hannah Griffin, but the Lady Eagles could not overcome No. 9 LSU in an 8-5 loss in the opening game of the Easton Purple and Gold Challenge for both teams here Friday afternoon at Tiger Park.
Holly Roessner homered twice and Cody Trahan did not allow a hit through four innings for LSU to help the Tigers open up an early lead as they held an 8-0 advantage into the bottom of the fifth.
"We finally got some guts about us and showed some fight," Southern Miss coach Howard Dobson said of his team's rally, which saw them score in each of the final three innings. "The first four innings (offensively) were kind of blah, but I am proud of the last three innings of and we are trying to become that team that fights like that in all seven innings."
Griffin a freshman from Mobile, Ala., allowed just one hit and two walks over the final three innings for Southern Miss.
"You have to give Hannah Griffin credit," Dobson added. "She shut them down by getting ground balls and that allowed us to get back in the game."
The offensive rally for Southern Miss began to start the fifth as Lauren Castellvi belted a leadoff homer to left-centerfield for her second round-tripper of the campaign. Jennifer Fox then added a one-out, solo shot to straight-away centerfield in the sixth.
The Lady Eagles then cut the gap in the seventh with three more runs. Castellvi, who was the only Southern Miss player with two hits, singled to start the inning. After a strikeout, Kristin Chaney then tripled off the right-centerfield wall. Then, Pigott, who came on to pinch hit, belted a Trahan pitch off the foul pole in right field for the final Southern Miss tallies.
"The two-run homer for Pigott was clutch and she did what she was asked to do," Dobson said of being able to put the ball in play safely. "We are looking for that type of play from our team."
The Tigers (11-3) plated a run in the first on a run-scoring single by Tayl'r Hollis and then added four more in the fourth inning as Roessner led of the inning with a homer, before Rachel Mitchell delivered a two-run single and Shannon Stein followed with a sacrifice fly off of USM starter Meghan Harbuck.
Harbuck (2-2) allowed eight runs on seven hits and six walks over four-plus inning to suffer the loss.
The Lady Eagles continue round robin action Saturday when they play Penn State at 11:15 a.m., and South Alabama at 6 p.m.
