LSU wins decisive Game 3, ends Missouri's season Tiger Extra - Mizzou Sports

LSU coach Beth Torina was right.

Missouri couldn't score runs — at least not enough — against her ace hurler.

Rachele Frico shut down Missouri's bats for a second time in three games and LSU beat the nationally seeded Tigers 3-1 Sunday night at University Field to win a decisive third game of the NCAA Columbia Super Regional and advance to the Women's College World Series.

Torina, LSU's first-year coach, was asked earlier this week how her team would score runs on Missouri ace Chelsea Thomas.

Answered Torina: "How's Missouri going to get runs on the board? We're talented too."

And they're moving on to the ultimate stage for college softball, ending Missouri's three-year run to the WCWS.

"We had a couple of innings with, once again, runners on base and we couldn't come through with a hit," Missouri senior Ashley Fleming said during a tearful post-game press conference.

MU had just two hits in the decisive Game 3 against Frico, and LSU got all of their runs on one swing in a rocky third inning for Thomas, who pitched 11 innings of the earlier game and seven the night before.

Thomas walked two and hit a batter in the third frame and then allowed a three-run double to Simone Heyward. Thomas was yanked for Bailey Erwin to start the fourth.

"I was actually really pumped and ready, excited to start the third game," Thomas said. "We all talked about if we come out and win this second game, we think we have the third game. And, uh, it just didn't happen."

The Tigers, the No. 9 national seed in the NCAA Tournament, finish the season at 47-14. They won Sunday's earlier game 5-1, a 12-inning marathon that featured four LSU errors, to force this series to a Game 3.

LSU won Game 1 on Saturday night, 6-1, with Frico in the circle.

Fico allowed just two runs and 10 hits in two games against MU. She got out of a massive jam in the third inning of Game 3. With the bases loaded and one out, Fleming's hard line drive to center was caught by Heyward.

She then threw out Corrin Genovese trying to score from third to end the frame and limit the damage to one run.

"I came up bases loaded with one out and hit a ball pretty hard to center field and got doubled up," Fleming said. "If that's in the gap, it's a different game."

Said MU coach Ehren Earleywine: "I think it all hinged on Fleming's at bat there with the bases loaded. I think I would still send the kid at third base. They still have to play catch and Genovese runs well."

LSU No. 2 Brittany Mack started Sunday's first game and struck out 17 Missouri batters despite the loss. None of MU's five runs were earned and four of them came during a wild 12th inning that saw three MU runners score on one play, an infield grounder.

Thomas and Mack combined to throw 366 pitches in Sunday's first game, which included three collisions and some jawing between opposing fans. In the sixth, Brianna Corwin, running for Kelsea Roth, was tagged out in a rundown between third and home after Genovese's infield grounder. LSU catcher Lauren Houston's tag of Corwin came near her neck and knocked the pinch-runner to the ground.

It incited a raucous boo from the Missouri fans and had MU coach Ehren Earleywine arguing with the home plate umpire and glancing toward the LSU dugout with a look of frustration.

Ashtin Stephens collided with a much-larger Mack at third base earlier in the game, and in the seventh, Jenna Marston, stealing second base, collided with LSU shortstop Juliana Santos.

In Sunday's late game, during Heyward's putout of Genovese at home, LSU catcher Morgan Russell pushed Genovese off of her. The home plate umpire had to separate the two.

"There were several points in that game where I felt like the umpires didn't do enough, they didn't get involved," Earleywine said. "There were some safety issues that I felt uncomforatable with."

Torina said her kids "were just trying to play hard."

"They just wanted to get to the world series so bad," Torina said.