April 9, 2013
Auburn, Ala. - Auburn pitcher Marcy Harper registered nine strikeouts to lead the Tigers to a 3-1 win over Southern Mississippi in softball Tuesday night at Jane B. Moore Field.
Auburn improved to 26-15 overall, while Southern Miss dropped to 11-29. The Tigers host Troy on Wednesday at 6 p.m.
"I'm proud of the way Marcy threw tonight," Auburn head coach Tina Deese said. "She did a good job keeping them off base in those middle and late innings. They were able to scratch out one run, but she recovered and did her job. Offensively, we were able to do just enough. We have a big game against Troy tomorrow and we are going to have to be at our best."
Harper improved to 14-6 with the complete-game win. The nine strikeouts were the second most this season by the freshman. Harper allowed one run, earned, on five hits in seven innings. Harper's 14 wins is one shy of tying the Auburn freshman record of 15 wins by Anna Thompson in 2007.
Beth Dietrich took the loss to fall to 1-10. Dietrich allowed three runs, two earned, on six hits with one walk and two strikeouts six innings.
A Southern Miss two-out error gave the Tigers their first run of the game in the bottom of the first. Tiffany Howard singled with one out and moved into scoring position after stealing second base. With two outs, Brooke Lathan hit a slow chopper that first baseman Sarah Evans allowed to go past her for an error. Howard, running on contact, scored easily for a 1-0 Auburn lead.
Auburn picked up another run in the bottom of second inning. Baylee Stephens doubled with two outs and came in to score on a single to left by Kristyn Richards to give the Tigers a 2-0 edge.
The Golden Eagles were able to put runners on in each of the first three innings. Southern Miss got leadoff singles in the first and second innings, and put two on in the third on a hit-by-pitch and a two-out single, but was unable to push a run across on Harper.
Emily Carosone gave the Tigers a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the fifth with an infield single deep at second that scored Richards from third. Richards led off with a walk and took second on a ground out. A sacrifice bunt by Tiffany Howard moved Richards to third, setting up Carosone's RBI.
After allowing four base runners through the first three innings, Harper turned it up a notch and retired the next 11 consecutive batters. The string was snapped with one out in the seventh on an infield single by Michelle Stringer. With two outs, Taylor Beck broke up the shutout bid with a double to the wall in left-center to score pinch-runner Kimberly Wilson to make it a 3-1 game. Harper, though, fanned pinch-hitter Kimberly Wagner to end the game.