NCAA Softball Tournament Results: LSU Tigers open Tucson regional with win over Louisville Cardinals

The LSU Tigers opened up the Tucson Regional with a 13-9 win over the Louisville Cardinals, thanks in large part to three doubles from Allison Falcon.

The senior infielder came into the game hitting .307 for the season, but she exploded for a 4-for-4 night, scored three runs, and drove in two more.

"I just credit that to our preparation that we had," Falcon said.  "A lot of credit goes to the coaching staff."

LSU postgame press conference

Louisville postgame press conference

Out of the 22 total runs scored, 13 of them came with two outs.

LSU started the game with three home runs in the first four batters, which seems like will be somewhat of a common theme this weekend.

"Give a lot of credit to our offense tonight," LSU head coach Beth Torina said afterwards.  "Unbelievable to have our leadoff hitter go out and set the table like that for us.  Can't ask for much more than that."

Both teams had plenty of defensive miscues that led to a lot of the runs.  And a lot of hits on the night.  24 total.

"I don't know if I've been in a regional game quite like that," Louisville head coach Sandy Pearsall joked. "Obviously those teams were hitting the ball really well.  Just a real crazy game.  But I'm proud of my team, they came back and fought hard."

However, LSU only used one pitcher in Baylee Corbello.  The Tigers have used their two pitchers evenly throughout the season, so Ashley Czechner will be plenty-rested for Saturday's slate of games.

Corbello gave up 11 hits in her complete game bid.  The one takeaway I had from her is that she has the capability of throwing a nasty offspeed pitch that has hitters way in front of the ball.

Louisville also suffered from the dreaded illegal pitch, getting it called on their pitchers several times throughout the night.

"We were hanging our pitches up in the zone," coach Pearsall added.  "It really came down to pitching when we needed it, and we didn't get it done."

LSU will face the winner of the Arizona/Boston University game at 1:30 PM MST on Saturday.  Louisville will face the loser of UA/BU at 4 PM.

"We try to take it one game at a time," said LSU coach Torina.  "We knew what types of pitchers all three teams had, but honestly right now we were focused on beating a really quality Louisville team."