Feb. 27, 2015
|
AUBURN, Ala. - For the 14th time this season, the No. 16 Auburn softball team run-ruled its opponent, Ohio State being its latest victim, by a score of 14-2 in five innings. As a team, Auburn hit five homers Friday night, the most in a game since 2011.
Home runs by Kasey Cooper, Anna Gibbs, Haley Fagan, Carlee Wallace and Jade Rhodes powered Auburn to the 12-run win, tying for its largest margin of victory this season. Rhodes finished with the big line of the night, going a perfect 2-for-2 with five RBI, including a three-run home run. The homer was Rhodes' sixth of the season.
Auburn is now 19-1 on the season, winning its last six, while Ohio State falls to 10-4.
"The biggest thing is not where the ball is going, but the quality of bats and the pitches we were swinging at," Auburn head coach Clint Myers said. "Last night we were talking about pitches we did not swing at and the ones we did were not good pitches. We had a long talk today in our team meeting and showed some video and the key thing is what we learned and if we can continue to grow and learn as a team the area of where we could finish could be unbelievable. It is a growing type of thing that we have to go out and learn from every single game and I thought we got better tonight."
Three players scored multi-hit games for the Tigers Friday. Rhodes, Branndi Melero and Morgan Estell each tallied two hits in the contest with Rhodes being the only one out of the three with a homer.
As for the pitching, junior Lexi Davis notched another victory, her ninth of the year to remain undefeated. Davis tossed four strong innings, giving up no runs and only three hits while striking out three.
The Tigers didn't get any runs across until the second inning, but did so in a big way, putting up a 10 spot off six hits, two being the homers from Cooper and Rhodes. It's the second time this season that Auburn has scored double-digits in an inning, the last being 10 against Troy in this year's season-opener.
The 10-run second was all Auburn needed, but it added three more in the third and one in the fourth for good measure to build a 14-0 lead after four. In the fourth, Coach Myers decided to clean out his bench as nearly every person on the roster saw either an at-bat or pinch ran.
With one out in the fourth, Gibbs came to the plate, pinch hitting for Cooper. Still looking for her first hit of the season, Gibbs launched one the opposite way and cleared the right-centerfield wall for Auburn's final run of the game. Gibbs' last home run came last season against Georgia State on March 26, as she now has two for her career.
Davis was relieved in the circle in the fifth as junior Marcy Harper came in to finish out the game. The Buckeyes tried to mount a comeback as Alex Bayne hit a two-run pinch hit home run to make it 14-2, but that was all they could muster as Auburn came away with the win.
The Tigers are back on the field on Saturday when they take on SIUE for their annual "Strike Out Cancer" game. First pitch is slated for 5 p.m. All of Auburn's players will be wearing pink jerseys during the game and fans will have a chance to win those pink jerseys throughout.
The game will also be broadcast on SEC Network+, which can be seen via WatchESPN.com or the WatchESPN app.
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.