March 15, 2015
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OXFORD, Miss. - It wasn't a run-rule victory, but No. 12 Auburn softball team continued to tear the cover off the ball, offensively, hitting four more home runs Sunday afternoon to defeat Ole Miss, 7-3, at the Ole Miss Softball Complex.
The win is Auburn's second in conference play and secures the series victory after beating the Rebels 14-3 in five innings yesterday. Overall, the Tigers are 28-2 and 2-0 in Southeastern Conference play, while the Rebels fall to 15-10 and 0-5 in the SEC.
Saturday's hero junior Jade Rhodes had a little more left in her today, going 1-for-1 with another home run and two hit by pitches. Rhodes' homer came in the top of the second inning to get the scoring starting for the Tigers. Her home run marked four-straight at-bats with a home run, going back to last night.
Emily Carosone, Kasey Cooper and Carlee Wallace all went deep in the game as well. As a team, Auburn has hit 61 home runs, which leads the nation. All but one of Auburn's runs Sunday came off the home run ball and half of the Tigers' home runs this week have come from Rhodes (4-of-8). Rhodes now has 12 home runs this year, which ties for the team-lead and conference-lead with Carosone.
Junior Lexi Davis picked up her 12th win of the season as she stayed undefeated with a five inning outing, giving up three earned runs on eight hits with six strikeouts. The six K's ties her season-high, but she wasn't able to go the full game after running into trouble in the sixth.
Davis had thrown five innings of scoreless softball, but suffered the one bad inning in the sixth, giving up three runs on two home runs, cutting Auburn's lead from 5-0 to 5-3. Davis was replaced with junior Rachael Walters, who shut down the Rebel offense the rest of the way, giving up no hits and garnering her second save of the season.
Auburn carried its slugfest over from Saturday into Sunday, getting solo home runs in the second and third innings from Rhodes and Carosone.
The team padded its lead in the fourth after Rhodes reached on a hit by pitch, which was followed by a double by redshirt senior Morgan Estell. With two on and nobody out, Wallacebroke her nine-game homerless streak with a three-run shot over the left field wall, upping Auburn's lead to 5-0.
Wallace now has six home runs this season, one of the tops among all SEC freshmen. Wallace finished the game 1-for-3 and had her second three-RBI game of the season.
Estell finished with a good game also, going 3-for-4 with one run scored. The three hits is a new season-high for the senior.
Ole Miss tried to rally in the bottom of the sixth, scoring its three runs off the home run ball, but once Walters came in, the Rebels couldn't do any more.
Auburn got some insurance in the top of the seventh as Cooper hit her 10th home run of the year, her third solo home run of the season. She also singled earlier in the game to extend her hitting streak to 14-straight games. Cooper finished Sunday 2-for-4 with one run scored and one RBI.
Auburn and Ole Miss will be back on the field for the third and final game of the three-game series Monday as the two teams will face off once more at 6 p.m. The game will be Auburn's second nationally televised game of the season as it can be seen on the SEC Network. Trey Bender and Cheri Kempf will be on the call.
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.