Wahine lose regional
opener to LSUAnother loss would eliminate
Hawaii from the NCAA Region
3 softball tournament
AUSTIN, Texas >> Location was a recurring problem for Hawaii pitchers this morning.
LSU kept relocating their pitches over the left-field fence.
Gleening confidence after watching Hawaii starter Melissa Coogan on tape, LSU set an NCAA softball tournament record with five home runs in a 9-4 victory at the University of Texas' McCombs Field in the first-round of the Region 3 tournament.
Right fielder Alicia Owen and shortstop Blair Smith each hit two homers and left fielder Meegan Steege added another as LSU, which earlier this year set the school's single-season home run record, notched its second five-home run game of the season.
It was LSU's largest offensive output since a 10-1 win over Auburn 10 games ago.
Hawaii (37-19) fell into the loser's bracket of the double-elimination tournament and played the loser of the Texas-Texas A&M Corpus Christi tonight in an elimination game.
LSU (50-16) did most of its damage against Coogan (29-10, who allowed three home runs and six runs in 3 innings before giving way to Shannon Tabion.
"Our pitchers were not on as far as getting their pitches where they wanted to go," Hawaii coach Bob Coolen said. "We've had two weeks off since our last game and LSU took it to us with their bats." The Wahine hadn't played since defeating Louisiana Tech 7-0 in the WAC Tournament final. They had a five game winning streak going against Louisiana teams, which included four over Louisiana Tech and a win over Centenary College.
But LSU (50-16), which entered the regional tournament with 47 homers, was clearly a cut above its home-state sisters. Their largest offensive output since 10-1 win over Auburn on April 27.
"We've had a lot of pop in our bat the last month," LSU coach Yvette Girouard said. "We've been swinging with a lot of confidence. Sometimes, they go over the fence.
"We watched film of (Coogan) last night and our hitters thought they would be capable of hitting her." Facing LSU's hitters was difficult enough, but the Wahine also had a tough time with the clock.
The first game of the tournament started at 9 a.m. CST -- 4 a.m. in Hawaii.
"The early game concerned us," said Coolen, whose team arrived in Austin Tuesday afternoon. "In a day-a-half we've had five different time zone changes. You always say it takes a day for every time zone change to get acclimated."
Yet, Hawaii threatened to take an early lead by getting runners on base in each of the first three innings and came within inches from scoring first.
Noelle Izumi led off with a infield single on a tapper just in front of the plate and went to second on Tracie Uchima's sacrifice bunt one out later.
Dahlberg then slapped a hard drive that barely fell outside the left-field line. Dahlberg eventually flied out to left.
LSU opened the scoring in the bottom of the third when Smith, the No. 8 hitter, sent Coogan's 1-0 pitch over the 212-foot sign in left field.
Smith then added a two-run shot in the five-run fourth, which also included a two-run shot by Owen.
Hawaii staged a comeback in the fifth as Marie Jackson, Izumi and pinch hitter Stacey Ritter loaded the bases with consecutive singles to start the inning.
One out later, Dahlberg delivered a two-run single to cut the deficit to 6-2. Stacy Porter then hit a two-run double with two out put the Wahine back in contention.
"Coach told us we needed to get to that pitcher and we got those four runs," Porter said. "But they kept bringing us back with home runs. We started too late. If we'd got going earlier it might have been different." LSU made sure it wouldn't be different with another Owen homer in the fifth and Steege's two-run shot in the sixth.
Hawaii will now play Texas A&M Corpus Christi today at 3 p.m., Hawaii time, in a must-win game.
