BATON ROUGE, La. – The No. 5 LSU softball team opened the second day of the Purple and Gold Challenge in a big way on Saturday, getting a 4-for-4 day from Constance Quinn, five RBIs from Sahvanna Jaquish and complete-game effort from Baylee Corbello to defeat the Illinois State Redibirds 9-1 in five innings Saturday at Tiger Park.
The Tigers (11-2) pounded out all nine runs on nine hits, led by Quinn who drove in two and had a double with three runs scored, while Jaquish belted her second home run of the year and drove in the last two runs of the game on a double for her five RBIs with a runs scored. Emily Griggs was the only other LSU player to earn two hits on the day going 2-for-4 with a run scored.
Corbello (3-0) held Illinois State (3-10) to four hits in the win, as an unearned run crossed the plate for the Redbirds as the Lake Charles native struck out five and walked just two. She needed just 83 pitches in the game, with 54 for strikes.
Sarah Fink (3-5) suffered the loss for Illinois State, allowing six runs, three earned, on five hits with three walks in 3.1 innings of work. Ali Domkuski pitched an inning and gave up two runs, one earned on two hits with a walk and strikeout, with Shannon Felde giving up a run on two hits.
Illinois State plated the first run of the game off of an error, as LSU was able to get an out before two consecutive hits put two on, with a strikeout and then the error making it 1-0 Redbirds before another strikeout ended the frame.
Quinn opened the bottom half of that same inning with a single to short, stealing second base to get into scoring position. An infield grounder advanced her to third for the first out as LSU was looking to strike, but another grounder put two outs on the board with Quinn now at third. Fortunately, walks to Bianka Bell and Kellsi Kloss loaded the bases with the next play resulting in an error to tie the game at 1-1, with Shemiah Sanchez getting hit by a pitch to bring in another to put LSU up 2-1.
Alayna Falcon opened the bottom of the fourth with a walk, as Sydney Bourg came on to pinch run. Bourg advanced to second as Sandra Simmons put down the sacrifice bunt and reached on an errant throw to put two on for the Tigers.
Quinn came through again with an RBI single to left to score Bourg to make it 3-1, with Simmons at third and Quinn at second after the throw in. It left an open base, but all would be cleared shortly after as Jaquish belted one to left for the three-run shot to make it 6-1 LSU.
Bourg reached first after an error at short in the bottom of the fifth. She stole second and advanced to third on a fielding error, while a walk to Simmons put runners at the corners for LSU. Simmons got caught trying to steal second, but a Quinn single to right center plated the run to make it 7-1. After the third pitching change of the game for ISU, Griggs got an infield single to put two back on for LSU, as Jaquish put the dagger in by drilling a liner to the fence in left center to bring in both and seal the win 9-1.
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