Coach Torina Claims 600th win as LSU skipper

LSU Athletics

BATON ROUGE, La. – No. 20 LSU shut out Louisiana Tech, 9-0, in five innings on Tuesday night at Tiger Park for Head Coach Beth Torina’s 600th career victory at the helm of the program.

With 600 career wins as an LSU Tiger, Beth Torina joins legendary company at LSU—becoming just the third head coach in a head-to-head team sport to reach the milestone, alongside Skip Bertman (870) and Paul Mainieri (641). She stands as the only active LSU head coach with 600 or more wins.

LSU (22-10, 3-6 SEC) earned its third consecutive victory and has won four of its last five games, while Louisiana Tech (17-15, 3-6 C-USA) drops its fifth consecutive game of the season. The Tigers also stretched their winning streak against the Bulldogs to 27 games in the all-time series.

“I’ve said all along that this team is getting better all the time,” said Head Coach Beth Torina. “They are growing all the time. I can’t recall a team that has had this much growth as the season continues. I am confident that we will continue to improve.”

LSU pitcher Paytn Monticelli started the game and set the tone in the combined shutout. The first seven outs for the Tigers were strikeouts for Monticelli, with four of them being swinging strikeouts. The senior hurler improved to 3-1 in the circle and allowed one hit and one walk in 3.0 innings.

The final two innings saw freshmen pitchers Cali Deal and Ashlin Mowery close the game. In the fourth, Deal notched one strikeout and gave up one hit, while Mowery struck out two of the four batters she faced in the fifth.

Leading the team in hits, Tori Edwards (2-for-2) and Jalia Lassiter (2-for-3) both hit solo shots and scored two runs. T. Edwards matched a team-high two RBI with Kylee Edwards, who contributed a two-run round tripper in the win.

Louisiana Tech’s Laney Johnson was handed the loss and falls to 4-2 on the season. Johnson gave up the game’s first four runs and four hits and walked one batter in 0.2 innings. Two other pitchers logged innings for the Bulldogs, but none registered a strikeout.

Monticelli got things started by striking out the side. Four runs on four hits capped the first inning for LSU. Safely reaching base, the Tigers’ first five batters set the stage, highlighted by consecutive hits from Lassiter, Sierra Daniel, and T. Edwards. T. Edwards singled to score Lassiter. On a fielder’s choice, Daniel was called safe at the plate, followed by Char Lorenz’s sacrifice fly that plated T. Edwards. Destiny Harris then brought the score to 4-0 with an RBI double down the left field line after the first frame.

After Monticelli struck out the side for the second time, the Tigers belted three home runs in the second, including solo shots by Lassiter and T. Edwards, and a two-run homer by K. Edwards increased LSU’s margin to 8-0. It marked the first time LSU had three home runs in a single inning since May 24, 2024, at Stanford, where Ali Newland, Maci Bergeron, and Kelley Lynch went yard in the 2024 Super Regionals.

Monticelli had another clean inning in the third that started with a strikeout before concluding her day, and Deal took over in the fourth, where the defense tallied their 20th double play of the season, and Deal capped the half inning with a swinging strikeout. Pinch hitter Gradie Appling’s first career hit was an RBI double to push LSU’s lead to 9-0 after four.

A pair of strikeouts from Mowery ended the game in the fifth inning, following Bergeron catching a runner stealing for the first out.