BATON ROUGE, La. – Trailing by a run, Auburn softball (22-12-1, 4-9 SEC) scored in the sixth and seventh frames to battle from behind to take down No. LSU 3-2 in Friday's series opener at Tiger Park.
"It's one pitch at a time," said head coach Mickey Dean. "We have been worrying about this or that in previous games. Now we're just playing it one pitch at a time. If you have that mindset, then nothing is going to bother you. You can just move on. That makes the game fun. We're enjoy it. We're having fun. They are a fun group to coach."
Striking out in her first two at bats, Anna Wohlers responded with doubles in her next two plate appearances. Her double to lead off the seventh inning was the spark the Tigers needed to complete their comeback bid.
Tagging up on a deep fly ball to left, Wohlers stood at third with two outs. Nelia Peralta extended the inning with a walk before a delayed steal moved herself into scoring position. Icess Tresvik knocked a ground ball to third base, but LSU mishandled the play which allowed the go-ahead run to score.
Maddie Penta struck out three of the four batters she faced in the bottom of the frame to secure her 13th win of the season. In her two innings of relief, Penta allowed just one hit and closed the game with four strikeouts.
Shelby Lowe put the Tigers in a position to win with a strong start in the circle. In 4.1 innings of work, Lowe relied on her defense to record the outs. She gave up one walk and five hits. LSU scored its lone runs off Lowe in the fourth inning as Karli Petty knocked a two-run homer to right field to give the Bayou Bengals their 2-1 lead.
Annabelle Widra came into the game in the fifth to record two outs to help keep it a one-run game heading into the final innings.
Auburn took a 1-0 lead in the third inning with a two-out rally. KK McCrary singled up the middle ahead of a Makayla Packer walk to put two on for Peralta. Peralta knocked a ground ball to the shortstop, but the speed of Packer proved too much as she beat out the throw on the fielder's choice play at second. McCrary never slowed down as she scored easily on the play.
It was Axe Milanowski's turn for a clutch two-out base hit in the sixth inning to tie the game. A Peralta single and LSU error put two on with no outs. Abbey Smith moved the base runners with a sacrifice bunt before an infield pop-up put the second out on the board. In one of her biggest at bats of her career, Milanowski knocked a chopper between third and short to plate the tying run.
Auburn looks to win its first SEC series of the season on Saturday. First pitch on the SEC Network+ is set for 6 p.m. CT.