April 13, 2014
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By Charles Goldberg
AuburnTigers.com
AUBURN, Ala. -- Lexi Davis took a line drive off the chest and didn't want to come out.
The Auburn pitcher showed her toughness in the early innings, and the Tigers showed it again when they rallied from a four-run deficit before losing another tough one, this time 7-6 to Missouri on Sunday in a Top 25 battle at Jane B. Moore Field.
Auburn's losing streak stretched to seven games, and all the losses have been by one or two runs, and all have been of the what-could-have-been variety. The Tigers rallied from a seven-run deficit to tie Missouri on Saturday, only to lose when it gave up a run in the sixth. Sunday, Auburn tied it in the fourth, and again in the sixth, only to lose when Missouri outscored Auburn 2-1 in the last inning.
"We've just got to kick ourselves in the butt and say 'let's go' and get it done," said Auburn coach Clint Myers. "We're a better team than how we've played. You can't say they give up and have no heart. They stayed right there the entire time. The pitcher got hit by a line drive to the chest, and she didn't want to come out. How many times are you going to see that?"
Davis allowed a grand slam to Kelsea Roth after being hit, and Myers took her out the next inning.
"She's wanted to finish. She wanted to go. But she was a little tight the next inning and we weren't going to take any chance. We've got a lot of season left," he said.
No. 20 Auburn fell to 31-12-1 overall and 6-9 in the SEC. No. 16 Missouri improved to 32-10 overall and 9-6 in the league. Auburn can jump off the losing streak when it faces No. 2 Alabama in the One and Only in Montgomery at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Lagoon Park. It's the only regular-season matchup between the rivals, and the game won't count in the SEC standings.
Missouri won Sunday despite a two-run homer from Madi Gipson and a two-run hit from Jenna Abbott in the fourth that tied the game at 4-4.
"We're trying to put everything together," she said.
It was 5-5 until Missouri's Corrin Genovese and Kelli Schkade hit home runs in the seventh. McKenzie Kilpatrick's RBI double made it 7-6 in the bottom of the inning, but she was stranded on base as the game ended.
"We've got to understand the game a little bit betterââ'¬¦trust our preparation, trust our confidence," Myers aid. "We're moving in the right direction.
"We're here until all hours of the night to make it happen."
Clint Myers talks the good, the bad after Sunday's game
Charles Goldberg is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: Follow @AUGoldMine