Kaylee Carlson pitched nine scoreless innings in Tuscaloosa, as Auburn took their fourth straight game from the Alabama Crimson Tide, 3-0 on Friday night.
The home Crimson Tide (39-14, 11-10 SEC) brought a record-crowd of 4,015 to Rhodes Stadium, all of whom saw Carlson pitch a complete game shutout, propelling her record to 25-3 on the year.
The junior worked all of Auburn’s nine season-high innings of play, throwing a career-high 161 pitches in the process and allowing five hits.
“My mentality was to try to not make any mistakes, to try to not give them any free bases, not allow them to score any runs, because it was going to take us how long it was going to take us to get runs," Carlson said.
Alabama’s ace pitcher, junior Alexis Osorio, caught fire for 18 strikeouts. The Tigers remained patient at the plate, however, drawing 11 walk-off 184 pitches from the Riverside, California, native.
Kasey Cooper led the way in terms of on-base percentage. The SEC’s all-time leader in RBIs walked three times and was hit by a pitch once.
Carlee Wallace, Alyssa Rivera and Kendall Veach recorded the only hits of the contest. Veach’s two-out double in the ninth inning served as Auburn’s only two RBIs.
The Tigers and Tide carried the goose egg scoreboard into the top of the ninth, where the Tigers finally broke through for the go-ahead trio of runs. With Cooper at second and Wallace at first, UA committed an error off Auburn senior Haley Fagan, with which Cooper was able to race home and score the game’s first run. Two batters later, Veach made good of her two-out appearance at the plate with a crucial double, scoring Fagan and Wallace.
“I’m glad we won,” said Auburn head coach Clint Myers. “We capitalized on their mistakes. It was a well-pitched game by two tremendous pitchers.”
Clint Myers’ 200th victory with the Tigers program pushed Auburn to 44-8, 16-6 SEC on the year. The arch-rivals will clash in prime time on Saturday night, with the first pitch of game two set for 7 p.m. CST on ESPN.
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