The best lessons are often the failures that hit hardest. The LSU softball team experienced that in Friday’s 4-3 NCAA tournament elimination loss to Florida State.
After squandering a seventh-inning lead, the Tigers had another lead moments later and were one out from playing for the series victory and a Women’s College World Series berth. They couldn’t overcome the second gut punch when the Seminoles’ Elizabeth Mason hit a tying home run.
Florida State finished the game in its next at-bat.
The whole season for LSU has been one, long lump-ridden exercise, and coach Beth Torina planned it that way. A young team with four seniors and no Southeastern Conference or postseason experience among a host of its young players was a battled-hardened group that lined up against a seasoned foe.
The last game of the 2021 season is also the first step of the 2022 campaign.
“They (FSU) played five kids in the lineup that won a (2018) national championship; I played five kids that played their first SEC game this year,” an emotional Torina said after the game. “It’s a huge difference. This game is terrible to lose right now; it feels horrible. Our team is talented, but they won’t lose this game again. They grew up a lot, they learned a lot they experienced a lot. They’re going to start next season completely different: confident, battle-tested, completely prepared.”
LSU not only had the toughest schedule in the nation and the most losses of any of the 16 national seeds going into the tournament, but it dealt with COVID-19 restrictions and still managed to win eight of 10 series in the nation’s toughest conference.
It made mistakes but never stopped fighting to make up for them. When shortstop Taylor Pleasants botched a possible double-play grounder to help the Seminoles tie the game in the seventh inning, she hit a home run to give her team the lead in the eighth. When catcher Morgan Cummins’ passed ball let in the tying run, she made a stellar play to block a baserunner representing the winning run off home plate.
As tearful a moment as the final result was, it was probably as far as this team could go.
“It hurts no matter what,” senior third baseman Amanda Doyle said. “We had some opportunities to close out that game and make it to tomorrow.
“I’m really proud of the team. We fought really hard. It was back and forth the whole time. If that’s how you go down, that’s how you do it. I’m proud of how we’ve been the whole season with all the adversity we’ve faced.”
Doyle, star center fielder Aliyah Andrews, pitcher Maribeth Gorsuch and reserve outfielder Akiya Thymes won’t be back but most everyone else will, joined by a six-player recruiting class rated No. 6 in the nation by Extra Innings Softball. All six are ranked among the top 100 players nationally.
Pleasants and Georgia Clark, who combined for six of LSU’s eight hits and two homers Friday, will form the heart of the lineup. Andrews as leadoff hitter will be tough to replace but Daneica Coffey and Ali Newland are destined for more playing time and Torina is hoping Shelbi Sunseri can rebound to her 2019 All American hitting form.
Sunseri and Ali Kilponen give the Tigers their top two pitchers returning with Morgan Smith, another two-way player in the mold of Sunseri, improving the depth in the bullpen.
All the returning players will carry Friday’s heartbreak as fuel for 2022.
“I’m really sad I can’t get the seniors another day,” Kilponen said. “We have some amazing people we have to say goodbye to. We’ll feel that remorse today but use that fire to get back next year and get to Oklahoma City.
“We have a young team, we have a lot of people returning who have felt what it’s like to be in postseason. I’m really excited to see what our team is going to do next year.”
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