LSU softball upset by Southeastern in opening round of regional

BATON ROUGE, La. – Southeastern Louisiana (49-14) rallied back from a 3-0 deficit to pull off the upset and advance to the winner’s bracket of the Baton Rouge Regional, defeating LSU (41-15) 4-3 on Friday at Tiger Park.

With the score tied 3-3 in the seventh inning, Southeastern infielder Maria Detillier drew a two-out walk, and catcher Cydnee Schneider hit a long single to right-center field that scored Detillier, who beat the throw at home plate for the eventual game-winning run.

LSU suffers its first loss against Southeastern at home in the all-time series (19-1) and falls in the first regional game for the first time since 2022.

LSU pitcher Jayden Heavener (13-5) struck out four batters, allowed two earned runs on four hits, and walked five batters in 6.2 innings.

Southeastern relief pitcher Lainee Bailey tossed 4.2 innings of no-hit softball, surrendering three walks and had one strikeout.  

The Tigers outhit the Lions 7-3. No player for either club recorded multiple hits, but LSU outfielder Jalia Lassiter had a game-high two RBI and two walks.  

In the second inning, infielder Sierra Daniel hit a leadoff single to shallow left field. She stole second base, and designated player Maddox McKee and infielder Avery Hodge logged back-to-back singles to load the bases. Lassiter stepped to the plate and put LSU on the scoreboard with a two-run ground-rule double to left-center field, giving the Tigers a 2-0 lead.

After shaking off the threat of runners in scoring position in the top of the third, the Tigers tacked on another run in the home half with a run-scoring single by outfielder Jadyn Laneaux to extend its lead to 3-0.

Southeastern responded in the fourth inning with three runs, two unearned, on one hit, tying the game on a wild pitch heading into the fifth frame, and after two scoreless innings, SLU took the lead on a well-struck gapper.

Lassiter opened the bottom of the seventh with a four-pitch walk, and Southeastern put infielder Tori Edwards the game-winning run on the base paths on a four-pitch walk as well with one out recorded. The SLU defense retired the next two batters to seal the game and advance to a noon CT matchup against Nebraska.

Up Next

LSU will face UConn in an elimination game tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. CT. UConn fell to Nebraska 10-2 in the Baton Rouge Regional opening game.

LSU is 2-0 all-time against UConn. The two clubs will meet for the first time since 2016.

For the latest news and information on Tiger softball, visit www.lsusports.net/softball. Fans can follow the team on its social media outlets, such as www.facebook.com/lsusoftball and @lsusoftball, as well as on Instagram and X.

*LSU press release

LSU head coach Beth Torina postgame quotes

Opening statement…

“Definitely not how we drew it up. I felt like our staff worked really hard to prepare, felt like we had a good game plan — just didn’t execute it at times. Didn’t get any breaks either. They’re a very quality opponent. They put a lot of pressure on you with their speed game. They don’t leave any room for error. I didn’t think we defended it perfectly, didn’t think we executed everything. And then we hit three balls on the screws in the last inning and nothing seemed to fall for us.

So, definitely not where we want to be. Not acceptable to me — for this program and how we want to play softball games. But it’s also sports, and sometimes the chips just don’t fall your way. The good thing is we have outs left, we have a chance to answer it tomorrow, and we’ll work really hard to make sure that we do.”

On her message to the team…

“We just have to answer it. Keep throwing punches — that’s really our only option at this point. I don’t know — fact-check me — but I think Oklahoma lost this game once and came back to win the national championship. I’m not saying we’re Oklahoma, but I’m saying it’s been done. Is it a harder path? Yes. But we have a deep pitching staff, kids that love softball, a team that’s really tough. I feel like it can be done.

We’re going to continue to pour into them, give them hope. We believe a ton in this team — in the season they’ve had and in what they do. We’ll keep being positive and see how tough they are tomorrow.”