Auburn (25-16, 5-12 SEC) tied the game in the third inning, but Ole Miss (31-15, 12-8 SEC) scored five unanswered runs for a 6-1 victory in game two of the series on Saturday night at the Ole Miss Softball Complex.
Defensive difficulties damaged the Tigers’ comeback bid, as the Rebels scored three unearned runs in the sixth inning.
Auburn recorded six hits, with Alyssa Rivera leading the team, going 2-for-3 on the night for her 50th multi-hit game of her career. Tyler King was 1-of-2 on the evening and drove in Auburn’s run with a sacrifice fly in the third inning.
Maddie Penta started for the Tigers, allowing two runs off two hits, two walks and a pair of hit-by-pitches. The freshman pitcher also managed a pair of strikeouts in her three innings of work.
KK Dimsukes and Lexie Handley came in for relief. Dismukes conceded seven hits in her 2.2 innings of work and was charged with four runs, but only one was earned. She also issued one walk and a pair of strikeouts.
Handley closed the game by facing the final Ole Miss batter in the sixth inning and recording the out.
“We made some mistakes early on,” said head coach Mickey Dean. “Tonight, we didn’t play good defense to give us an opportunity to stay in the game or even win the game. We had bad pitches in 0-2 and 1-2 counts. We just didn’t play well enough.”
After a scoreless first, the Rebels capitalized off of a wild pitch and a single to left-center with a double steal, plating the first run of the evening.
Auburn replied in the top of the third with a Maddison Koepke single. After advancing to second on a sacrifice bunt and reaching third on a passed ball, Koepke scored on a sacrifice fly to left from King.
The tie was soon broken as Ole Miss’s Autumn Gillespie slugged a solo home run to left-center in the bottom of the third, putting the Rebels up 2-1. Dismukes held Ole Miss to its one-run lead until the bottom of the fifth when the Rebels strung together a double and single up the middle to post an insurance run.
Sunday’s series finale against the Rebels is scheduled for 1 p.m. CST on the SEC Network.
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