Auburn Softball: Tigers take dramatic series win over LSU
By Keith Prater
The Auburn softball team just wouldn’t quit, as the Tigers take two of three from LSU in dramatic fashion.
There were times earlier in the season when Auburn struggled to move baserunners and come up with hits during key innings, but not this past weekend. Auburn’s Haley Fagan delivered clutch hits, in both the Friday night and in Sunday’s late game, to cap off a exciting opening weekend of SEC play.
In Friday’s series opener, LSU took an early 2-0 lead into the bottom of the third, but Victoria Draper used a beautiful bunt to reach first to get the inning started. Kasey Cooper drew up a walk two batters later to put two on when Fagan doubled home Draper to close the gap, 2-1. Kendall Veach then grounded out to short, scoring Cooper and moving Fagan over to third. Courtney Shea gave Auburn a 3-2 lead when she hit a screaming liner up the middle to score Fagan.
LSU fought back to take a 4-3 lead over the next two innings.
Fagan led off the bottom of the fifth with a walk and scored all the way from first when Kendall Veach hit a line drive double deep in the left field corner to tie up, 4-4. Veach would come around to score what would be the deciding run when Morgan Podany hit a slow roller to second base that was mishandled by the defense.
Victoria Draper led Auburn’s offense, going 2-for-3 with an RBI, and Kendall Veach finished with a hit, and two RBI in the Tigers 5-4 victory.
The Saturday game was postponed to a noon start on Sunday because of rain. That cloud followed Auburn overnight as Auburn had no answers in the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader. LSU evened the series out, 1-1.
In the series finale, Auburn got more fireworks from Veach as she came to the plate in the bottom of the first with the bases loaded and brought home two runs with a bloop single over third base for an early 2-0 Auburn lead.
LSU took a 3-2 lead in the fifth inning with an offensive explosion, racking up three runs on four hits.
With one out in the bottom of the fifth, Carlee Wallace singled to reach first. Cooper followed Wallace with a walk. Haley Fagan then hit a rope to left field for a double to plate two runs as Auburn regained the lead 4-3.
Kaylee Carlson fought through a jam in the sixth to keep Auburn in the lead heading into the seventh inning, but LSU tied it up with a run-scoring single to set the stage for a dramatic inning ahead.
Wallace got things started with a single to right, and was followed by a walk from Cooper. Fagan grounded into fielder’s choice to keep runners at first and second with one out. That’s when the unexpected happened.
Kendall Veach hit a routine ground ball to third base which was fielded cleanly but a wild throw to first scored Cooper to give Auburn the walk-off win.
Wallace finished with three hits, while Fagan and Veach each had two hits, and two RBI.
Carlson picked up the win going all seven innings, allowing four runs.
Auburn picked up a huge series win over LSU that should catapult the Tigers into SEC play. Things won’t get easier in the coming weeks as the Tigers have a Tuesday matchup with Tennessee this week before heading off to the USF tournament in Tampa, FL.
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The Tigers will return to SEC play March 25th, when Auburn heads to Gainesville, FL to take on Florida