The No. 4 nationally seeded Auburn softball team took a second victory from Jacksonville State in the NCAA Tournament on Sunday at Jane B. Moore Field. The Tigers took the championship game by force with a 14-2 run-rule victory, improving to 3-0 as hosts and 52-9 on the season.claimed the NCAA Regional with a 14-2 run-rule victory over Jacksonville State on Sunday afternoon.
“We’re very excited and I thought that we played extremely well,” Auburn head coach Clint Myers said. “We’ve got some very good pitching in the circle, and we played good defense. The bats really woke up and they stayed with the plan.”
Auburn made frequent use of home plate, scoring four, one, six and three runs over the first four innings of the contest. The lineup batted around in their first trip to the plate as the visiting squad and plated the first four runs with two outs against them.
Kasey Cooper came up in the second to notch her second single of the game, but stole home on a wild pitch after advancing to third thanks to a Carlee Wallace hit-and-run for a 5-0 lead.
Jacksonville State responded with a solo home run begin to cut into the Tiger lead, but Auburn's Tiffany Howard followed up with a grand slam, the second home run of her career, to make the score a nine run difference.
"We always say at Jacksonville State, “Exhaust every ounce of will in you,” and this team did that," said Jacksonville State head coach Jana McGinnis. "If we’re going to lose, lose to the best. Auburn is possibly going to be World Series champs, and they are one of the best.”
The Tigers used four different bodies in the circle, with Rachael Walters starting in the first two innings to allow three hits and one earned run. Makayla Martin, Marcy Harper and Lexi Davis each tossed an inning with Harper earning credit for the win.
"It was a much better offensive performance than we’ve had games prior," said Myers. "We’re moving in the right direction and we’re going to get ready for the Supers."
Auburn will host it's second-consecutive Super Regionals and face off against No.18/22 Arizona at Jane B. Moore Field May 27-29.
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