Cougars top Bison, fall to No. 10 Tigers

BATON ROUGE, La. – BYU softball topped North Dakota State 3-1 before falling to No. 10/11 LSU 8-0 Friday afternoon at the LSU Round Robin.

"Kerisa (Viramontes) continued to pitch well today," BYU head coach Gordon Eakin said. "After beating a very good pitcher for North Dakota State, we just couldn't sustain our effort against LSU."

The Cougars (16-14) beat the Bison (17-9) in the first game, despite getting outhit by North Dakota State.

In a rematch of Thursday night’s 12-inning game, LSU (25-4) capitalized on a productive third inning at the plate to earn a five-frame victory, due to the NCAA eight-run rule.

Game one

Rylee Jensen, Lexi Tarrow and Emilee Erickson all had one hit apiece, including Erickson’s home run. She also led BYU with two RBI while Alexa Strid added one as well.

Kerisa Viramontes pitched a complete game to earn the win and improve to 6-4 on the year. 

In the top of the second, Caitlyn Alldredge walked before Erickson homered to left field, putting the Cougars up 2-0.

Briielle Breland was hit by a pitch in the sixth and later advanced to second as Tarrow got on with an infield single. Libby Sugg then grounded out to first base to move up the runners. Alexa Strid later sent a sacrifice fly to left field, bringing Breland home to make it 3-0.

The Bison responded in the bottom of the sixth as a walked batter scored North Dakota State’s lone run of the game on a BYU throwing error in right field.

BYU vs. North Dakota State Box Score

Game two

The Tigers held the Cougars to just one hit, a third-inning single up the middle by Brooke Vander Heide.

Autumn Moffat and Arianna Paulson shared pitching duties for BYU. Paulson pitched just over an inning and recorded two strikeouts in her first appearance of the season.

LSU got on the board in the first inning with Michaela Schlattman’s three-run homer to left field for an early 3-0 lead.

In the third, the Tigers added five more runs on three hits and an error to make it 8-0.

BYU vs. No. 10/11 LSU Box Score

"Playing here against great competition in this environment has been an awesome experience," Eakin said. "We need to come back and finish strong tomorrow."

The LSU Round Robin concludes for the Cougars Saturday with a matchup against No. 13/14 Baylor at 10 a.m. CDT. A link to live stats will be available on the BYU softball schedule page