LSU's Taylor Pleasants ends longest SEC Tournament game in history with 14th-inning walk-off
More than 430 pitches were thrown in the titanic struggle between LSU and Alabama in the first round of the SEC Softball Tournament, with the Tigers finally securing the win in the bottom of the 14th inning.
The 14-inning ballgame sets the record for the most innings in a single SEC Tournament game, doubling the length of a typical seven-inning softball match. Starting at 10:00 a.m. central time in local Auburn, Alabama, the Tigers and Crimson Tide battled for nearly four hours as LSU batted in the game-winning run just before 2:00 p.m. CT.
The two clubs knocked in two runs apiece during the regulation innings before remaining deadlocked at 2-2 through the 13th inning. Then, in the 14th, with the bases loaded and one out, LSU’s Taylor Pleasants sent a moonshot right over top of the Alabama centerfielder that hit the wall and drove in the final run, winning the game for the Tigers, 3-2.
Take a look:
Pleasants has been dynamite in bases-loaded positions all season long. Ahead of her 14th-inning at-bat, ESPN showed that Pleasants was 4-5 at the plate this season with the bases loaded, having hit one grand slam while driving in 15 RBIs. Now, she’s 5-6 with 16 RBIs and would have easily had a 17th if the game hadn’t ended.
Pleasants speaks after walk-off hit
In the aftermath of her hit, the biggest of LSU’s season to date, Pleasants sat down with the SEC Network crew, who asked what about her immediate emotions once she reached first base on the walk-off hit.
“It’s awesome. That’s what we play for. We’ve done it a few times now, a few walk-offs, but just to be able to be surrounded by your teammates, the ones you do it for, it’s just a great feeling,” she said.
Pleasants then explained her thought process sitting at the plate with the bases loaded and just one out, knowing she only needed to bat in one run.
“Two strikes, I was just thinking: Get above it, get something on the ground through the infield. Doesn’t have to be perfect, just get above it, get it in the outfield, be productive.”
She certainly got that ball to the outfield. And this hit for Pleasants means even more than just an SEC Tournament game victory, because she had been struggling in the back half of the season compared to the beginning. When asked how she regained the confidence to stand in there and smack a game winner to the deep centerfield wall, she credited a change in mentality.
“This started a little earlier in the year, but just changing my mental game completely. I went to see a sports psychologist at LSU, so just trying to make it not about me. If something falls on me, I want to change it around and make it not about me. I’m going to get a hit for my team. I’m going to do everything not for me.”
Now, Taylor Pleasants is the toast of Baton Rouge right now after delivering the win amid a nearly-four-hour standoff between the Tigers and Tide.