May 8, 2011
Lexington, Ky. - Pitcher Angel Bunner and the Auburn defense fought off a seventh-inning rally that stranded the tying run at second as the 23rd-ranked Tigers softball team defeated No. 18 Kentucky 2-1 in the series finale Sunday afternoon.
Auburn improved to 38-16 overall and 15-13 in the Southeastern Conference. The Tigers claimed the series victory, two games to one, over Kentucky, which dropped to 36-13 overall and 14-9 in the SEC.
The Tigers will next travel to Oxford, Miss., for the SEC Tournament. Auburn is the seventh seed and will face the second seed at 1:30 p.m. Thursday. The game will be televised live by ESPNU.
"This was a great win against a good team," Auburn head coach Tina Deese said. "We made some mistakes late, but we fought through those and didn't let them beat us. Angel did a good job, again, keeping their hitters from getting anything going. This was a good series win, taking another series from a ranked team. It's a good way to go into the SEC Tournament."
Angel Bunner earned the win in relief to improve to 15-6. Bunner allowed one run, earned, on two hits in three and two-thirds innings with one walk and no strikeouts. Jenee Loree started and went the first three and one-third innings allowing just two hits with two walks and two strikeouts.
Ellen Weaver (6-1) started for Kentucky and went four innings, allowing two runs, both unearned on four hits with no walks and six strikeouts. Chanda Bell relieved Weaver in the fifth inning and pitched the final three innings, allowing just one hit with one walk and one strikeout.
Auburn took advantage of two Kentucky errors to score a pair of runs in the fourth inning. With one out, Lauren Guzman reached on a throwing error by Weaver and moved to second on a single through the left side by Kelley Smiley. Colton then followed with a single back up the middle to score Guzman from second for the first run of the game.
After the second out of the inning, Amber Harrison chopped a ground ball to Emily Jolly at second who threw wild of first allowing Smiley to race home for the second run of the inning. Harrison was thrown out attempting to advance to second on the error to end the inning with the Tigers holding a 2-0 lead.
After issuing a one-out walk to Rachel Riley in the bottom of the fourth, Loree was lifted for Bunner who retired the first two hitters she faced to end the inning with a runner stranded at first.
Bunner worked out of a jam in the bottom of the fifth. With one out, Bunner hit Jolly. Megan Yocke followed with a ground ball to Morgan Estell at first, who threw to second for a play on Jolly, who was ruled safe. Kara Dill grounded into a fielder's choice, forcing Yocke out, but moving Jolly to third. After Dill stole second, Bunner walked Meagan Aull to load the bases. With the tying and go-ahead runs aboard, Bunner forced Brittany Cervantes to fly out to center to end the inning with the shutout intact.
In the bottom of the seventh, Annie Rowlands reached on a leadoff triple and scored when Jolly looped a single into shallow right field to make it a 2-1 game. Bunner forced Yocke into a fielder's choice, forcing Jolly out at second, for the first out of the inning.
Dill followed with a ground ball to second that Kelsey Cartwright booted for an error, allowing Yocke to reach second as the tying run and Dill to reach first, representing the winning run. On a 3-2 pitch, Bunner forced Aull to fly out to Katie Colton in left for the second out of the inning. Bunner squashed the potential rally as she forced Cervantes to line out to Harrison in right for the final out of the game.