AUSTIN, Texas – No. 2 Texas (29-2, 3-1 SEC) took the opening game at Red & Charline McCombs Field on Friday, defeating No. 23 Auburn softball (21-9, 0-7 SEC) in five innings with a 12-2 final.
“I liked the way we came out,” said co-head coach Chris Malveaux. “We didn’t have a lot to show for it, but we did have a lot of hard-hit balls off Teagan Kavan early on. It felt like we were attacking the right things. On the other side of the ball, Texas took advantage of everything we gave them and broke the game open. I didn’t like our emotional responses toward the end. It kept compounding mistakes, and we have to get better at that. At the end of the day, it’s one game. We still have two more in the series.”
Auburn recorded five hits in Friday’s contest. AnnaLea Adams connected for a first-inning double and moved to third on a passed ball but was unable to score.
Abbey Smith turned in a 2-for-2 effort in her return to her home state. She singled in the third before driving in Auburn’s first run of the game in the fifth off an infield single. Kylie Brockman and Thalia Martin also picked up hits in the fifth to set the table for Smith. Martin scored Auburn’s second run by advancing on a wild pitch.
Texas got on the board in the first inning with back-to-back home runs to build a 3-0 lead before adding a run on a sacrifice fly in the second. Chalea Clemmons turned in a strong relief effort to keep the Longhorn bats quiet in the third frame, but Texas plated eight runs off six hits in the fifth inning to put the game out of reach.
Auburn used four pitchers in Friday’s contest. Haley Rainey was tagged with the loss, falling to 3-2 on the year.
UP NEXT
Auburn looks even the series on Saturday. First pitch on the SEC Network+ is set for 2 p.m. CT.