LSU Athletics
BATON ROUGE, LA. – No. 21/18 LSU claims its second Top 25 series of the season. The team defeated No. 12/11 Arizona, 3-1, on Saturday at Tiger Park in the 14th annual Strikeout Ovarian Cancer Game (Teal Game).
LSU (28-13) clinches the weekend series against Arizona (29-11) to improve to 11-3 all-time in the Teal Game. The Fighting Tigers’ last Top 25 series win against a non-SEC opponent was against then No. 7 Texas in 2021 at Tiger Park.
LSU had three hits but took advantage of a pair of hit-by-pitches, totaling three in the game. The Tigers’ defense had a solid performance, recording 11 groundouts, including five assists by Sierra Daniel.
“We are finding ways to win,” Head Coach Beth Torina said. “I think that has been a big push over the last few weeks. We seemed to be on the wrong side of the one-run games. It’s nice to see our team finding ways to win now.”
Cece Cellura registered her fifth complete game of the season and moved to 6-4 in the circle. Cellura had three strikeouts and gave up one unearned run and seven hits on the day. Cellura relinquished one walk, bringing her total to three over her last 35.1 innings. Both of Arizona’s runs in the series have been unearned.
The LSU offense had three hits in the game, including Kylee Edwards’ triple in the first, which marked the team’s 17th this year, tying for ninth most in a single season in the program’s record book (2014). Maci Bergeron and Tori Edwards also had hits in the game, and Alix Franklin and Ally Hutchins each had an RBI.
Arizona’s Jalen Adams dropped to 16-6 in the circle after allowing three runs on three hits and three walks in 6.0 innings. Adams had no strikeouts.
The Tigers started fast with two runs in the first inning. Jalia Lassiter opened the game by being hit by a pitch, and K. Edwards drove her in on a triple to right field. Franklin followed with a sacrifice fly to left field to give LSU a 2-0 lead.
Defensively, LSU faced the minimum through two innings, beginning with a swinging strikeout for Cellura, followed by five consecutive groundouts. Although the Wildcats had runners in scoring position twice over the next three stanzas, the Tigers did not give up anything of significance, clinging on to a 2-0 advantage through five.
The Wildcats crossed one unearned run in the sixth, but Cellura ended a second consecutive inning with a strikeout, her third strikeout of the game, and LSU took a 2-1 edge into the bottom of the sixth.
In the home half of the sixth, Franklin drew a one-out walk and advanced to second after T. Edwards singled to left field. After another out was recorded, Char Lorenz wore a pitch to load the bases, and Hutchins was given an RBI walk, scoring Maddox McKee, who had pinch-run for Franklin.
LSU led 3-1 heading into the seventh and recorded the first two outs quickly. Arizona tallied three consecutive hits to load the bases, but Sydney Stewart flew out to right field to end the game.
Up Next
LSU and Arizona will face off one more time this weekend with an 11 a.m. CT start on Sunday. The game will be televised on ESPN.
