An Auburn dominated crowd dotted by the colors of Arizona faithful fanned its way through 88 degrees of sunshine, humidity and super regional softball on Sunday. The Tigers (54-10) and the Wildcats (40-21) battled their way to game three at Jane B. Moore Field, with Arizona taking game one and Auburn responding to the tune of 4-1 in game two.
"These girls played an outstanding game. They played an outstanding two games. They beat a very, very good Arizona team and they did it because they stayed with the plan," said Auburn head coach Clint Myers "They were pulling for each other and went out and executed the things that needed to be executed."
Auburn entered game three "with a full tank of gas," according to Emily Carosone, defeating Arizona 6-1 to advance to their second consecutive trip to the Women's College World Series.
The Tigers came out swinging in the first, striking with a Kasey Cooper RBI single to bring home Tiffany Howard and Carlee Wallace sacrificing a fly ball to bring home Cooper for an 2-0 Auburn lead. The SEC Champions doubled their lead in the third when an Arizona throwing error brought Carosone and Cooper to score.
"Since we have everything – we have the pitching, the hitting, and the defense – there was no reason why we shouldn’t go to Oklahoma City," said Carosone. "We just had to beat them twice, and they had to beat us one more time, and we were ready."
Junior Haley Fagan notched a solo long ball just over the left field wall to extend Auburn's lead by five. Pitcher Kaylee Carlson completed the game with nine hits, no walks, no strikeouts and allowed just one run on an RBI single in the sixth. She left eight Wildcats stranded on the bases in her 88 pitch outing.
Carosone brought in the final Auburn run in the sixth to return the Tigers to a five run lead, helping her team breeze their way through to another postseason road trip.
"These young ladies started their journey for a national championship, and they just need to continue along the lines that they are currently doing," Myers said. "It could be a very good World Series for us.”
Auburn will face the winner of the Oregon/UCLA Super Regional Thursday at 2:30 in the Women's College World Series on ESPN.
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