After dropping their first game of the day, a close loss against Notre Dame, the Auburn Tigers softball team responded by defeating Tennessee Tech on Sunday.
The Tigers were able to pick up the Plainsman Invite title after defeating the Golden Eagles behind a barrage of home runs.
Against Notre Dame, Auburn jumped out to an early lead on solo home runs from sophomores Austyn West and Emily Carosone after the third inning. But, The Irish came back with a solo homer of their own from Emilee Koerner in the fourth and then evened it up with a Koerner RBI double in the sixth.
No more runs were scored through the seventh, and the game was sent to extras. Notre Dame was able to advance Carly Piccinich from second on a fielder's choice and then a wild pitch from Auburn's Lexi Davis to take the one-run lead.
In Auburn's half of the eight, sophomore Tiffany Howard reached third base. However, the Tigers couldn't get her home before the final out.
In the second game against Tennessee Tech, the Tigers got on the board in the bottom of the second when catcher McKenzie Kilpatrick hit a double that brought Branndi Melero in from second base. Shortstop Kelsey Bogaards then hit a sacrifice fly, with Kilpatrick scoring and bringing the score to 2-0.
Tennessee Tech cut the lead to 2-1 in the top of the fourth, but the Tigers were quick to respond with sophomore Emily Carasone scoring a run with a sacrifice fly to bring the score to 3-1.
Freshman Casey Cooper hit her first career home run in the bottom of the fifth inning, and Kilpatrick followed with a home run of her own to bring the score to 5-1. Kilpatrick's home run was her third in five games.
Tennessee Tech answered in the sixth with a home run and an RBI double, but the Tigers distanced themselves in the bottom of the sixth after Morgan Estell hit a solo shot to give the Tigers a 6-3 lead. Melero finished the Golden Eagles off with a two-run blast to make the score 8-3, and the Tigers ended the game with an 8-4 victory.
The win gives the Tigers a 4-1-1 record and shows promise with Auburn hitting four homeruns against Tennessee Tech.
Auburn hosts the Tiger Invitational next weekend, with games against Marshall, Loyola, Nebraska-Omaha, Western Illinois and Winthrop.
The Tigers start play against Marshall on Friday at 5:30 P.M. at Jane B. Moore Field.
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