After taking game one from No. 6 LSU on Friday, the Auburn Tigers were held hitless and became a part of the history books on Saturday in Baton Rouge losing 2-0.
The Bayou Bengals pitcher Kelley Lynch ripped through the Auburn lineup with no problem, not allowing a hit in 21 Tiger plate appearances and recording nine strikeouts along the way. It was the right-handed senior’s first no-hitter of her college career and the 45th no-hitter in LSU program history.
Auburn head coach Mickey Dean had high praise for Lynch after the game.
“Good at-bats come down to good decision making. Our decision-making wasn’t as good as it has been in the past," Dean said. "I want to say congratulations to that young lady (Lynch.) She comes out on a special day like today and pitches a no-hitter and wins. You always want to win, but congratulations to her.”
Auburn’s only base runners of the evening came by way of three walks and a hit-by-pitch on Makayla Packer.
Lynch got some help from the bats of her teammates in the bottom of the third when McKenzie Redoutey hit a two-run home run after a Sierra Daniel infield single to third base.
Auburn struggled to get the LSU offense back in the dugout with the purple and gold Tigers batting 5-for-10 with two outs. LSU scored both of its runs on two outs.
Ace Maddie Penta got the start in the circle for the orange and blue and recorded the loss, falling to 13-7 on the season. Penta went six innings giving up two runs and striking out two on six hits. She retired the first eight batters she saw.
“I thought she pitched well enough to win,” Dean said. “We will make better decisions in the box tomorrow than we did today. We swung at a lot of balls out of the zone and let a lot of balls go that were in the zone. When you put that together, you don’t score a whole lot of runs.”
Dean’s Tiger’s fell to 22-13-1 overall and 4-10 in the SEC with the loss. Auburn currently finds itself in 12th place in the league standings with three conference series to go.
Auburn will look to win its first conference series on Sunday in the rubber match beginning at 1 p.m. CST. Television coverage will be on SECN+ and the ESPN app.
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Logan Fowler is a junior from Sumiton, Alabama, majoring in journalism. He joined The Plainsman in Spring 2024.
