Mississippi State head coach Vann Stuedeman called time.
Sophomore pitcher Emily Williams held a 1-1 count against LSU senior infielder Shemiah Sanchez, who had already homered off her in the third inning.
“I said, ‘She wants to hit a home run, make sure you get in the box with her,'” Stuedeman recounted.
On the ensuing pitch, Williams did just the opposite.
“It was a mistake,” she said. “Missed middle instead of inside.”
Sanchez smoked the hanging fastball down the left field line to give No. 7/5-ranked LSU the 5-3 lead and ultimately a 2-1 series win in the top of the seventh inning.
The loss marked the fourth straight Southeastern Conference series that MSU failed to win.
“We fought back and sometimes some things may not go our way, but it is what it is,” junior utility player Fa Leilua said. “That only tells us we need to keep working, keep grinding.”
Sunday’s deciding match of the three-game series was not short on dramatics.
Trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the fifth inning, Leilua stepped to the plate.
After whiffing on an off-speed pitch on the outside of the plate, she stepped out of the box.
Behind the screen to the right of home plate, a fan donning a purple LSU sweater vest and yellow button-down barked words of discouragement at the Arizona State transfer.
Leilua reset in the batter’s box.
With a smooth swing, she cracked the next pitch over the center field wall to tie the game at three.
As she returned to home plate after her home run trot, Leilua turned to the fan and put a pointer finger to her mouth, shushing the previously boisterous heckler.
“That’s my passion for it,” she said. “It’s amazing to share not only with myself but with my other teammates.”
At 24-14, the Bulldogs sit at just 3-9 in the SEC. But near misses against nationally ranked Alabama and LSU have the team thinking bigger heading into the final 14 games of the season.
“We don’t need to reach our peak now, which is perfect,” Leilua said. “We’ve still got a lot of season left so I’m confident we’re going to do pretty well later on.”
MSU is back in action Wednesday night at 6 p.m. against Memphis before a three-game weekend series at Tennessee.
Ben Portnoy reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @bportnoy15.
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