It had been a game of missed opportunities for Auburn. The Tigers were 1-for-11 with runners on base and 1-for-6 with a runner in scoring position. They had left 10 on base through the first eight innings.
With two on and one out in the bottom of the ninth inning, Auburn head coach Clint Myers called over his freshman right fielder Alyssa Rivera as she faced a 1-2 count.
“It’s a situation that, basically, I said, ‘This girl can’t beat you. You’re better than she is. You don’t have to hit a home run. What you have to do is get the barrel on the ball, stay short, stay direct and know you’re going to beat her right here,’” Myers said.
Myers’ prediction came true as Rivera lined a 2-2 pitch to left field to score Brittany Maresette to give Auburn a 4-3 walk-off win over Cal and a spot in the regional championship Sunday.
“Very exciting,” Rivera said. “It’s someone different every single day. You just have to get it done.”
“It was a great win,” Auburn head coach Clint Myers said. “15 hits, four runs, usually it’s three hits and six runs. It’s kind of a nice difference. We had the intangibles of very good pitching, we played pretty good defense and we definitely had some timely hitting. We had some people come through at the right times. We are very excited about where we are. It was a very good Cal club, well-coached and good athletes. They’re a good Pac 12 team.”
Cal jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the third on a wild pitch by Kaylee Carlson and a RBI single by Lindsay Rood.
In the bottom half of the inning, Auburn struck back for two runs to tie the game. Casey McCrackin led off the inning with her third home run of the season, and Haley Fagan tied the game with a two-out RBI single.
Cal retook the lead in the fifth on a two-out RBI single by Kylie Reed.
The Tigers tied the game in the sixth on a controversial call at the plate. The Tigers had runners on first and second with two outs when Kasey Cooper, who was hitless in her last nine at bats, singled to left field. Khala Taylor’s throw appeared to beat Morgan Podany at the plate, but Podany was called safe after Cal catcher Alleah Laxamana bobbled the ball.
In the top of the ninth, Cal got runners on the corners with one out, and appeared poised to take the lead. However, a failed suicide squeeze and a strikeout by Makayla Martin got the Tigers out of the jam and set up Rivera’s shining moment.
Auburn starter Kaylee Carlson went six innings allowing three runs on five hits. Martin entered the game in the seventh, and pitched three scoreless innings to pick up her 20th win of the year.
Fagan finished the afternoon with four hits and a RBI. Rivera finished with three hits and the game-winning RBI.
Cal starter Zoe Conley pitched the entire 8.1 innings for the Golden Bears, allowing four runs on 15 hits. She fell to 20-14 on the year. Rood finished the day 3-for-4 with a double and a RBI.
Auburn advances to the championship game at 1:30 p.m. Sunday. The winner of the Cal vs. Notre Dame game will earn the right to play Auburn in the championship game on Sunday. However, with rain in the forecast for Sunday and possibly Monday, this game could have potentially served as a de facto championship game.
“We knew coming in, we saw the rain forecast,” Cooper said. “We knew that if we won today and it rained out tomorrow, we advance. We didn’t want to get put out by a contingency. We were playing for our lives right there.”
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