Feb. 21, 2015
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TAMPA, Fla. - With some key home runs and strong pitching performances, the 16th-ranked Auburn Tigers advanced to the championship game of the USF Wilson/DeMarini Classic Saturday, getting two wins over Marshall (5-4) and Dartmouth (6-3). Auburn is now 16-1 on the year, winning three-straight after suffering its first loss yesterday.
Redshirt senior Morgan Estell swung the hot bat on Saturday, hitting two home runs against Dartmouth, helping the Tigers avenge the Friday loss and advancing to Sunday's championship game. For Estell, it's her first multi-home run game since 2013 and only the second of her career.
"Both games were great competition today," Estell said. "It all came down to waiting for a good pitch, seeing a good pitch and putting a good swing on it. It felt awesome to hit the two home runs. It's not something I'm trying to do. They were both good pitches and I ended up putting a good swing on it."
For the rest of the Tigers' offense, the team totaled 14 hits over both games, hitting five home runs, four coming against the Big Green. Auburn needed every single one of the homers against Dartmouth as all six of its runs came off the big flies.
"The home runs give confidence for other people," Estell said. "We're trying to put hard hits on the ground. Both of my home runs were a hard ground ball mentality that ended up being home runs.
As a team, Auburn has hit 34 home runs this season, seven coming in just this weekend alone. The four home runs against Dartmouth on Saturday tied a season-high for most home runs in a game. Only against Eastern Illinois (2/14) have the Tigers hit four home runs in a game this season.
The Auburn pitching might have been just as clutch as the offense today with both juniors Lexi Davis and Rachael Walters going a season-high 6.1 innings, both garnering wins. In her eighth start of the year, Davis moved her record to 7-0, while Walters pitched a near complete game, giving up no runs with five strikeouts after coming in to relieve Jenna Abbott in the first. Walters is now 5-0 on the year with her win total good for second on the year.
In game one against Marshall, Auburn was trying to finish off its round-robin format of the tournament with a possible top-seed. However, the Herd had already won twice in the tournament, defeating Dartmouth and USF by a combined score of 15-4 and was in the driver's seat for the top seed.
Like most games this season, Auburn started out quickly jumping out to a 2-0 after RBI doubles from Branndi Melero and Haley Fagan. Marshall was able to cut that lead in half in the bottom of the first with a sacrifice fly by Shaelynn Lucas, to make it 2-1 Auburn after the first frame.
After a scoreless second, the Tigers put up a three-spot in the third after a huge home run from Melero, her fourth. With Tiffany Howard already on second from a double and walk by Kasey Cooper, Melero took one well over USF's deep centerfield wall, breaking a four-game homerless streak she had coming in. Melero finished the game 2-for-3 with four RBI, second-most in a game this season.
Even with the big 5-1 lead, Auburn struggled to put many more runners on, allowing the Thundering Herd to inch back into the game. After scoring one in the fifth and two in the sixth, it became a one-run game and the momentum in Marshall's corner.
Davis tried to come out in the seventh and finish things out, but after giving up a one-out walk, Davis was pulled and Walters came in for the save opportunity. Walters did her job and struck out Elicia D'Orazio before making Morgan Zerkle fly out to end the game. For Walters, it was her first save of the season.
The win secured Auburn the one-seed of the tournament, but was forced to play Dartmouth for the second time in two days with a chance to play in Sunday's championship game.
The Big Green had lost three-straight after upsetting the Tigers on Friday, but it looked like dejavu in the first inning when starting pitcher Jenna Abbott gave up a two-run home run. Dartmouth had a 2-0 early lead and Abbott had loaded the bases, forcing the Auburn coaching staff to make an early change and bring in Walters out of the bullpen.
Walters, the big hero against Marshall earlier in the day, came in and put up starter-like numbers, keeping Dartmouth scoreless for the rest of the game and striking out five. Walters only allowed six base runners the rest of the way, scattering three hits and walking four. Out of her 10 appearances this year, Walters has notched five strikeouts five times.
Offensively, Auburn's offense had a slightly slower start than Dartmouth, getting only one hit in the first inning, but bringing no runs across the plate.
Estell took the goose egg off the board for the Tigers in the second with her first homer of the day, a big two-out hit to cut the Big Green lead to 3-2 after two.
The Tigers took control in the third when Howard led off with a triple, her fourth of the year, followed by Emily Carosone's team-leading sixth homer of the season to give Auburn the 4-3 lead. It was Carosone's only hit of the game and her first long ball of the weekend.
Needing some insurance as the game ventured into the later innings, the Tigers got what they needed in a big way as Haley Fagan led off the inning with her sixth home run of the season, a solo-shot, followed by Estell's second home run of the day just three batters later.
Auburn's will now play in the championship game on Sunday against host-school USF at 10:30 a.m. central. The game can been seen on GoUSFBulls.com for a fee, but the audio will be free. Live stats will also be provided on GoUSFBulls.com as well.
For more information on Auburn softball, visit AuburnTigers.com, follow the team on Twitter @Auburn_Softball or follow them on Facebook at Facebook.com/AuburnSoftball.