The college softball postseason got under way this past week, with Regionals coming to an end on Sunday. In Baton Rouge, where 10-seed LSU was hosting, disaster struck for the home team as they lost back-to-back games against Louisiana with a chance to advance to the Super Regionals.
After Louisiana won the opener on Sunday 7-4, the two teams met again in a winner take all matchup, where the two teams traded leads with the Tigers holding an 8-7 advantage heading into the 7th (and final) inning. After getting their first two batters on base, Louisiana used a sacrifice bunt to move the runners into scoring position with one out. LSU tried to get a double play back in order by intentionally walking the next batter. Unfortunately, they could not deliver the pitch out, with the ball ending up going over the inside corner for a strike, but getting by the catcher allowing the runner from third to score and tie the game — and the runner on second to advance to third.
Louisiana scores the tying run on LSU after to a wild pitch on an intentional walk, they now lead 9-8 pic.twitter.com/ZJuJen8Jab
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) May 22, 2023
Then, again, LSU tried to issue an intentional walk to set up a double play and again threw the ball over the plate, with Jourdyn Campbell roping a line drive into right center for a single that scored the go-ahead (and ultimately, game-winning) run.
Missed this earlier but Louisiana’s run to take the lead was a single on an intentional walk
pic.twitter.com/TJGjcJW63U
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) May 22, 2023
It’s hard to imagine a more devastating way to have your season end, as LSU was two outs away from the Supers only to see a pair of botched intentional walks lead to the game-tying and game-winning runs for the other team. For the Ragin’ Cajuns, it was an incredible job of taking advantage of mistakes, both as baserunners and hitters, but for the Tigers it will be really hard to move on from this one.