BATON ROUGE— McNeese softball opened up Saturday's action with a 4-1 loss to no. 10 ranked LSU in a game that saw the Cowgirls fight until the end despite the loss.
 
The Cowgirls will now play the winner of the LIU Brooklyn/Arizona State game at 6 p.m. tonight in the semifinal back draw.
 
McNeese (43-13) stranded eight baserunners including the bases loaded in the third and the tying run in the sixth when the score was 2-1. It took a few innings before the Cowgirls would get a hit off LSU pitcher Carley Hoover as McNeese finished the game with five hits.
 
Junior Marisa Taunton led McNeese at the plate, going 2 for 4. Emily Vincent's solo homerun in the sixth provided the only Cowgirl run of the game. Taylor Goree and Shelbi Strickland also picked up singles.
 
Despite dropping her fourth game of the season, Jamie Allred (17-4) showed grit and determination throughout the game and got out of a few jams along the way. Allred gave up four earned runs off nine hits, struck out five and walked seven. The loss is her first in her last six outings and first since McNeese fell 8-7 at Lamar on April 29.
 
LSU (47-15) took an early 1-0 lead in the first inning off a RBI double to left centerfield by Sahvanna Jaquish that scored Bianca Bell who drew a two out walk to reach base.
 
McNeese missed a golden opportunity to put runs on the board in the third inning with the bases loaded. Hoover got out of the jam by striking out Morgan Catron and Tori Yanitor to end the threat. Strickland led the inning off with a single that landed between home plate and the pitchers circle and Hoover didn't attempt to make the throw at first. Taunton then beat out a throw from second base that sent Strickland to third. With runners on the corners, LSU elected to intentionally walk All-American Erika Piancastelli to load the bases. Hoover struck Catron and Yanitor on six pitches to get out of the jam.
 
LSU added a run in the third on the second RBI of the game by Jaquish to extend the lead to 2-0. Allred got out of a bases loaded jam to end what could have been a huge inning for LSU by striking out Allie Walljasper.
 
Allred got out of a similar situation the next inning when the Tigers loaded the bases again with one out. Allred struck out both Sandra Simmons and Bianka Bell to get out of the inning for the second straight time.
 
McNeese cut the LSU lead in half in the top of the sixth inning off a two out solo homerun by Vincent. The home run is her seventh of the season.  The Cowgirls could push Goree home from second who represented the tying run after Goree reached second on a two base error.
 
LSU tacked on two insurance runs on four hits in the bottom of the sixth to extend their lead to 4-1. Bloop singles by Jaquish and Kelsey Kloss knocked in one run apiece.
 
The Tigers ended the game with 10 hits led by three apiece from Jaquish and Emily Griggs. Griggs also scored two of the four LSU runs.