After beating Jacksonville State, the No. 21 ranked Auburn Tiger softball team (15-1) came back home to battle in The Plainsmen Invite, a series that included teams as ULM, Delaware State, Bradley university, and Syracuse. The Auburn Tigers played 5 games over the stretch of the weekend, one against every team and two against ULM, and the Tigers went 5-0, in which they dominated outscoring their opponents 30 to 4 and had great pitching with 53 total strikeouts over the weekend.
Auburn started the weekend against ULM on Friday February 27th at 2:30, The game started quickly for the Tigers as Nelia Peralta hit a Sacrifice Fly that scored Makayla Packer. That would be the only score until Sydney Cox bunted and would end up scoring both Makayla Packer and Carlee McCondichie, to make it 3-0 in the bottom of the third.
That three-point lead was all Shelby Lowe needed though, as she did a wonderful job of getting a Complete game shoutout, and with 13 strikeouts and only two hits, proved to be the catalyst that the Tigers needed for the rest of the weekend and would give the Tigers the win three to nothing.
Delaware State started the doubleheader on Saturday February 26, in which Auburn dominated with a six-run start in the bottom of the first thanks to the bats of Jessie Blaine, Lindsey Garcia, Denver Bryant, and Carlee McCondichie, that would later turn into a nine to nothing victory in five innings, Delaware state was held to no runs thanks to Samantha Yarbrough who in 4 innings of work produced five strikeouts and one hit allowed.
To round out the doubleheader on Saturday, Auburn played Bradley, Aubrie Lisenby got the first run of the day in the bottom of the second with a RBI single, but it was Makayla Packer who stole the show with a massive solo home run that extended Auburn’s led to two nothing after five innings.
However, the game was not over as Bradley’s Addie Welsh scored one in the top of the seventh to cut the lead to one, but Auburn was able to hold out and win this one 2-1 thanks to Maddie Penta turning in 6.2 innings of work in which she produced 15 strikeouts, however it was Shelby Lowe who got Addison Pettit to groundout to end it.
There was a threat of rain on the last day of the Plainsmen invite but that did not stop Auburn from coming out to play, that play started with dominating Syracuse, the best illustration of which came in the bottom of the third when Bri Ellis hit a big time two run homerun, and not to be outdone Aspyn Godwin hit a solo shot on the very next at bat. That third inning would produce a nine to nothing lead that would be held throughout the entire game, only scared in the top of the fifth.
The top of the fifth would mean that Bradley had bases loaded, and an opportunity to comeback, but it Shelby Lowe who got two big strikeouts in the fifth that ended the game of which she had 11 total, as Auburn held on to win nine to nothing and set the stage for one final game versus ULM.
Over the Course of the last game ULM’s Dugout did a great job of being loud and proud with chants such as Auzzie Auzzie Auzzie and hey batter batter, but they had a reason they got the first lead over the Tigers anyone had got in the Plainsmen Invite early in the third inning, but in the end Auburn’s Lindsey Garcia with a moonshot to right field that put the Tigers up 7-3 in the bottom of the sixth. Maddie Penta got her seventh win of the season with four innings of work and 4 strikeouts to round out the Plainsmen Invite.
The Tigers will have little time to rest as they have Georgia State in Atlanta Georgia on Wednesday March second, before competing in the Jane B. Moore Memorial this weekend, the Tigers will be sure to continue the winning ways in the coming weeks as they look to jump further in the rankings
