BATON ROUGE - LSU softball defeated Southern Illinois 4-1 to advance to the Baton Rouge Regional Finals Saturday at Tiger Park.

The Tigers started the scoring with a Taylor Pleasants two-run home run in the first inning. An Ali Newland RBI single in the third and a Ciara Briggs sacrifice fly in the seventh allowed LSU to get the 4-1 victory.

Starting pitcher Sydney Berzon struck out eight hitters while only allowing four hits and one run through a full seven innings.

LSU will play Southern Illinois in the Baton Rouge Regional championship game at 3 p.m. Sunday because the Salukis beat California in an elimination game Saturday afternoon.

Since the tournament is double-elimination, LSU only needs to beat Southern Illinois once to advance to the Super Regionals, while the Salukis need to beat the Tigers twice.