There are perfect games, and then there’s what LSU senior Maribeth Gorsuch threw on Saturday vs. Belmont. It wasn’t just 21 up and 21 down for the first seven-inning perfect game in LSU history (all four prior perfect games had been in five-inning run-rule victories), but 21 consecutive first-pitch strikes with 16 total strikeouts, her career high.
Watch LSU pitcher Maribeth Gorsuch throw a perfect game
Gorsuch threw a first-pitch strike to every batter she faced.
Brandon Gallego of LSU Athletics
“She did some things that I’ve never seen in my entire career on a softball field tonight,” said her coach Beth Torina after the Tigers improved to 13-1 on the season, thanks to Gorsuch’s history-making performance. “Twenty-one first-pitch strikes is unheard of; I don’t know if I have ever been a part of something like that. When I saw her warming up, I thought her ball had a lot of life.”
Gorsuch threw 81 pitches total (an average of just under four pitches per batter) and brought her season ERA to 1.12.
In the widely shared highlight reel of some of Gorsuch’s most impressive pitches from the outing (which included, at one point, eight straight strikeouts), it’s clear she was operating on another level — her off-speed pitches in particular looked downright absurd.
“I was trying super hard to just stick to my routine, and make sure I kept my breathing consistent, which is really big for me,” Gorsuch told reporters afterwards, sticking to the classics by way of explanation for her singular outing. “I was worried about the batter and took it one pitch at a time.”
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