The opening game of a series between two of college softball's elite lived up to the hype. Kayli Kvistad's three-run homer in the seventh inning propelled No. 1 Florida to a 6-3 win over No. 3 Auburn that kept the Gators' perfect record (25-0) intact.
"It was a good ball game," Auburn head coach Clint Myers said following the loss. "The fans clearly got their money's worth."
Florida struck first when Kirsti Merritt knocked a Makayla Martin pitch out of the park for a three-run homer, which ended Auburn's shutout streak at 42 innings. Before those Florida runners had reached base, Auburn had retired the Gators' first eight batters.
Auburn finally got on the board in the fourth inning, when a sac fly by Jenna Abbott sent Carlee Wallace home. In the sixth, Jade Rhodes hit into a double play that scored Emily Carosone, cutting the Gators' lead to 3-2. A Florida error allowed Kasey Cooper to score, which tied the game and sent the season-high crowd of 2,059 at Jane B. Moore Field into a frenzy.
The momentum wouldn't be on the Tigers' side for long, as the defending national champions went on top for good on Kvistad's two-out homer.
What will haunt Auburn is what transpired before both of Florida's home runs. In both instances, Auburn's pitcher had two strikes and two outs to work with. Both times, the following pitch resulted in a ball instead of an inning-ending strike, much to the chagrin of the crowd. Both times, the next pitch was a home run.
While some will point to those calls by the umpire as the deciding factor, Myers refused to.
"We're not going to make excuses. We're not going to put any blame," Myers said. "You've got three very good umpires here. They did their job, and we've got to do ours. We've just got to be better than we were tonight to get more runs on the board and get a W."
Despite the loss, Myers recognizes the challenge that Florida poses and was pleased with the Tigers' effort, despite their mistakes.
"Where we're at right now, I thought it was a hell of a game," Myers said.
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