The Auburn Tigers took down Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne 2-0 Saturday afternoon in the Tiger Invitational, keeping their undefeated season alive.
Auburn senior pitcher Jenee Loree led the way for the Tigers by throwing a scoreless no hitter, while Courtney Cronin of IPFW took the loss.
Branndi Melero scored Auburn's first run of the afternoon on an IPFW error in the bottom of the first.
The Tigers (4--0) increased their lead to 2-0 in the bottom of the fourth after Morgan Estell drove in Lauren Guzman on a two-out single to right field.
IPFW posed a threat in the sixth inning with two runners in scoring position from a walk by Loree and a sacrifice bunt, bringing the go-ahead run to the plate.
Loree escaped by forcing opposing pitcher Cronin to ground out to third. From there, Loree completed her score-less no-hitter, and the Tigers finished off the win.
"I was proud of them," said coach Tina Deese. "I thought they played really hard and liked what I saw from them today.
"I thought the overall performance was very good, very strong. We had a strong pitching performance. I thought our defense really played lights out, and we worked ourselves out of a couple jams, and then offensively we manufactured a few and did what we had to do." Deese said she is not only proud of her team's skill, but its attitude as well.
"Everybody gets out and works real hard and wants to start, but we've got quite a few selfless players that really get behind the others and support them and challenge them," Deese said. "They're fighting for positions, but when it all comes down to it, we're all on the same side."
Despite an undefeated start to the season, Deese said there is always work to be done.
"We want to work as a well-oiled machine and that just takes time on task and getting things done, and that's what we do," she said. "The more game time we get underneath us, I think the better we're going to become. There are a lot of kids out of there for the first time, so they just need to get used to playing."
Deese believes IDFW was a great opponent leading into SEC play.
"The athlete on the mound against us threw a really nice game and kept us off balance," she said. "That's the kind of pitching we're going to see in the SEC. That really did help prepare us for what we've got in store in the SEC season."
Auburn will close the Invitational Sunday at 4 p.m. against Appalachian State at Jane B. Moore Field.
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