Auburn continued its winning ways on Friday with a pair of victories over Murray State. The Tigers won a pitcher’s duel 1-0 before sweeping the doubleheader with a 3-1 win, moving the team to 8-1 on the season.
The story of the series was freshman pitcher Shelby Lowe, who had a performance that had to be seen to be believed. Lowe threw a complete-game shutout, striking out twelve — eight swinging — walking none and allowing just a single hit at the top of the 7th.
Lowe’s perfect game was ruined when an infield hit followed by a bang-bang play at first resulted in a Murray State single. The Pickens Academy product moves to 2-0 on the season with a .30 ERA through 16.1 innings pitched.
“Shelby and I in her bullpens this past week, we really worked hard on Shelby being Shelby," said Auburn head coach Mickey Dean. "And you see what she can do when she can spin it... It doesn’t matter what I think and it still doesn’t diminish what a great effort it was.”
Auburn’s lone run of the game came on a right-field double by junior Aspyn Godwin that sent Tyler King home from third. King produced the first hit of the game and came away with a steal that helped set up the game-winning run.
Murray State and Auburn saw more success swinging the bat in the second game of the series, with the two teams combining for six hits and four runs. Auburn was led at the plate by Aspyn Godwin, who produced a hit and an RBI in only two at-bats.
Redshirt senior Lexie Handley pitched well, tossing five innings with five strikeouts and one earned run allowed. KK Dismukes finished the game in relief, striking out two and allowing no runs or hits.
Auburn will conclude the Tiger Invite tomorrow with another doubleheader against IUPUI starting at 2:30 p.m. CST. Both games will be available for streaming on SEC Network+.
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