PSU spoils Torina debut
Rain throughout the day Friday pushed the start of LSU’s season opener against Penn State back about two hours. It wasn’t the weather, however, that spoiled new coach Beth Torina’s debut in the Tiger Park dugout.
Penn State struck for five runs in an out-of-nowhere fifth inning, negating the early dominance of LSU starter Brittany Mack to take a 5-3 victory before 1,073 fans on the annual Tiger Classic’s first day.
“I’m definitely disappointed to start the season off like this,” Mack said. “I had my one bad inning. I take full responsibility. Take away my bad outing, we did really well.”
Torina said she enjoyed her first night as a Tiger despite the cold, wet conditions and the outcome of the game.
The Tigers will give it another go for her first victory when they face No. 15 Michigan at 12:30 p.m. and Penn State again at 3 p.m. They wrap up their opening weekend against Louisiana Tech at 12:30 p.m. Sunday.
“There’s so much with the fans it can get you very emotional very fast,” Torina said. “I definitely think I have a lot to learn about coaching here, but overall it was a great atmosphere and the fans were great. I enjoy every bit of them.”
The crowd Friday included former LSU coach Yvette Girouard, who watched from a suite along the first-base line.
Torina took over for Girouard in June after the Hall-of-Famer retired with 1,285 career victories, and it looked like she would get off on the right foot when Juliana Santos drew a bases-loaded walk in the second to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead.
Heading into the fifth inning, Mack, coming off a 20-win junior season, had allowed only two hits and had struck out nine.
Suddenly, the Nittany Lions broke through.
It started when Danee Collett worked the count full with the bases loaded and two outs. Mack hit her with the 3-2 pitch, scoring Cassidy Bell from third. Then, Alyssa Sovereign drew a full-count walk to score Penn State pitcher Lisa Akamine, who’d chopped a single down the third-base line.
Next batter up, Kasie Hatfield got a curveball from Mack and rifled a double to right-center, emptying the bases and bumping the 2-1 lead to four runs.
“I was kind of wanting to throw another pitch,” Mack said, “and I didn’t shake it off. I kind of wanted to jam her and didn’t go with my instinct.”
Two batters later, Mack escaped further damage with a strikeout of Lauren Anderson.
Then the LSU offense showed some life.
Ashley Langoni provided a quick response to the Penn State flurry, looping a long fly ball to left just over the outstretched glove of Shannon Hutchinson and onto the berm for a solo homer. The score was still 5-2 when Simone Hayward led off the seventh with an infield hit, scoring two outs later on newcomer Ashleigh Kuhn’s single to right.
The Tigers had the tying run at the plate when Akamine induced Morgan Russell into a fly ball to center for the final out.
“I thought the most positive thing about the day was they showed they still had some fight at the end,” Torina said. “We’re scoring in the seventh inning. We’re still trying to come back. They never lost hope.”
Mack finished with 13 strikeouts, her career high in a seven-inning game.
MICHIGAN 7, LOUISIANA TECH 6: Michigan opened its season with a win, but the 15th-ranked Wolverines had to hold off a furious rally after scoring the game’s first seven runs.
Taylor Hasselbach’s two-run homer in the third made it 4-0 and Nicole Sappingfield ignited a three-run fourth with her RBI single.
Louisiana Tech broke through with two unearned runs in the bottom of the fourth after being no-hit by Michigan starter Sara Driesenga, then scored four in the seventh off Haylie Wagner.
After a two-run homer by Katelynn Hill and a two-run double by Janna Frandrup in the seventh, Tech had the tying run on second when Erin Kipp grounded out to third for the final out.