Before LSU could get its hands around another Southeastern Conference championship, Auburn's Sara Dean took it away.
Dean, hitless in her previous four at bats, hit a towering two-run homer off of LSU All-American Britni Sneed in the top of the seventh for a dramatic 2-1 victory in Wednesday's nightcap that halted the homestanding Tigers' celebration plans for their fourth-straight overall SEC title and sixth straight Western Division crown before 755 at Tiger Park.
LSU won the opener 8-0 in five innings.
"This is going to be this team's destiny," LSU coach Yvette Girouard said. "If we allow another team to come into our park and take the SEC championship away from us ... we'll have to talk about character."
LSU (46-9, 24-4) will have to wait until today's 3 p.m. single game against Auburn (34-22, 12-14) to claim its fourth straight overall SEC championship and sixth straight Western Division. The game will be broadcast by WJNH (107.3-FM).
Dean's homer -- her sixth of the year -- came on a 1-2 pitch off the screen beyond the left field wall. Her blast came with Kelly Sutton, who walked to lead off the seventh, on second base.
"If anyone can do it, Sara can," Auburn coach Tina Deese said of Dean's home run. "I felt comfortable with her at the plate. She got two strikes and choked up a bit. It was a pretty good poke for us. She's been big RBI-wise for us all year."
The split stopped LSU's season-long winning streak at 16 games. The Tigers suffered only their third loss at home in 28 games.
The Tigers loaded the bases against Auburn winning pitcher Kristin Keyes (19-10) who allowed three singles through the first six innings.
Singles from Blair Smith, Trena Peel (2-for-3) and April Janzen loaded the bases with one out. But Keyes, who is the Tigers' ace, got fly balls to medium-depth outfield from Christy Connor and Erin Johnson.
"It's the same old song and dance," Girouard bemoaned of her sporadic offense. "We score one run and leave runners stranded. And we absolutely had the right people at the plate and didn't get it done."
Sneed (26-6) pitched a two-hit shutout in the opening game that was stopped after Peel's RBI-double provided a 8-0 margin.
Kristin Schmidt allowed only Deni Zeigler's single through 61/3 before walking Sutton to start the seventh.
That's when Girouard summoned Sneed for only her fifth relief appearance of the season to face Dean.
"We were thinking she could come in and get some Ks," Girouard said of her decision to pull Schmidt, who struck out 11. "But maybe we should learn from this because this has happened before. Kristin pitched a great game, so it looks like a mistake on my part."
LSU's offense, which supplied eight runs on 12 hits in the opener, was checked by Keyes who walked three and struck out four. Johnson's run-scoring single in the third was LSU's lone run.
Schmidt retired the first 13 batters she faced until Zeigler's one-out single to right-center field in the fifth. She struck out at least two batters in five of the first six innings and fanned 11 for the game before leaving with one out in the seven.
"We left too many runners on base early on," Girouard said. "When we had a chance to bust it open early, we didn't do it."
There was no bigger fan of LSU's offensive windfall in the opener than Sneed, who won for the ninth straight time.
"It was awesome," Sneed said. "I was behind them on the bench saying thank you. Our bats just exploded and everyone was having fun, which is the most important thing. Instead of everyone having to press like we've done lately, we all had fun."
The opener was in direct contrast to Sneed's last four outings when she took 1-0 leads into the bottom of the seventh each time.
By the time Sneed reached the top of the second, she was already the beneficiary of a 3-0 lead. That margin reached 7-0 with three more runs in the fourth.
Six players drove in runs and five registered more than one hit.
Johnson's RBI-single opened LSU's scoring in the first, while run-scoring doubles from Janzen (2-3) and Julie Wiese (2-3) highlighted the Tigers' three-run fourth inning.
Peel's RBI-double scored Blair Smith from first with one out in the fifth to end the game.
Sneed faced just three batters over the minimum in recording her 19th shutout. She struck out the first eight batters she faced and 10 of the first 11.
Sneed yielded Shannon Anderson's infield single in the third and Martha Phillips' solid single in the fifth past shortstop Blair Smith into left field. Auburn had two runners on in the fifth after Jodie Van Ooyen was hit by a pitch, but Sneed struckout Lindsey Chitwood and coaxed a ground ball out from Anderson to end the inning.
Sneed's 13 strikeouts represented the 22nd time this season she's struck out 10 or more batters and the 10th times in her last 11 outings.
"Coming in I knew they had some really good hitters, hitters who could hit the long ball," said Sneed, who threw 75 pitches with 55 for strikes. "So that fired me up and after you strike out the side twice, you can lose your focus and your groove. But I tried to stay in my groove and not lose my focus."
Linescores
First Game
LSU 8, Auburn 0
Auburn 000 00 -- 0 2 2
LSU 301 31 -- 8 12 0
Jen Lofton and Deni Zeigler; Britni Sneed and Leigh Ann Danos, Jennie Reeves (4). W -- Sneed (26-5). L -- Lofton (10-12). 2B -- Johnson, Wiese, Peel.
Second Game
Auburn 2, LSU 1
Auburn 000 000 2 -- 2 3 0
LSU 001 000 0 -- 1 6 0
Kristin Keyes and Deni Zeigler; Kristin Schmidt, Britni Sneed (7) and Jennie Reeves; W -- Keyes (19-10), L -- Sneed (26-6). 2B -- Phillips. HR -- Dean. A -- 775.
