The Auburn softball team was handed its second loss of the season Wednesday, a 5-4 defeat at the hands of the No. 9 Florida State Seminoles.
Auburn, who was playing its first game as a ranked team after a 13-1-1 start to the season, started slow against the Seminoles, and were never able to fully recover.
"We had chances to win the ball game," said Auburn head coach Clint Myers. "We hit the ball pretty hard."
Both teams had 4-run innings, Florida State's coming in the second, Auburn's the fifth.
Prior to that inning, the tigers had yet to record a hit.
"This is a young team," Myers said. "We're not gonna make excuses."
Auburn's first hit, the one that sparked the almost-comeback, was a homerun to right field by Jenna Abbot, her third homerun in what was only her sixth at-bat of the season.
The decisive run for Florida State came in the third inning, when left fielder Ellie Cooper singled to drive home Lauren Harris.
In the home-half of sixth inning, Auburn had its first of two late chances to end the game.
After pinch-hitter Ashley Leon struck out to lead off the inning, Abbot singled up the middle.
Auburn's next batter, shortstop Kelsey Bogaards went up 3-0 in the count, before fouling off four consecutive pitches then finally drawing a walk on the tenth pitch of the at-bat .
Pinch-hitter Austyn West stepped in and singled to left field, loading the bases for Pre-Season All-SEC infielder Emily Carosone.
On the very first pitch, Carosone lined out to the second basemen, who threw pinch-runner Tiffany Howard at first to end the inning.
The Seminoles went three up, three down in the top of the 7th, and in the bottom half, the Tigers would again set up a chance to win, but come up just short.
Morgan Estell and Kasey Cooper recorded two quick outs before right fielder Branndi Melero singled to third on an 0-2 count.
Then catcher McKenzie Kilpatrick nearly won it in walk-off fashion for Auburn.
Kilpatrick hit a towering ball straight to center that hovered over the warning track just before coming to rest in the glove of seminole centerfielder Courtney Senas, about a foot from the back wall.
"I'm not disappointed," Myers said. "We fought, we didn't make an error, we didn't beat ourselves."
The loss drops the tigers to an overall record of 13-2-1.
"We we're one hit away from winning this ball game," Myers said.
Myers said that aside from wins and losses, the main focus of the team is to learn how to get better.
"We tell them every day, that two things are going to happen," Myers said. "Either you're gonna get better or you're gonna get worse, and I think we got better tonight."
After playing their last 15 games at home, the tigers will head to Kissimmee. Fla. on Friday to take on Oregon in their first matchup of the Diamond 9 Citrus Classic.
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