No. 3 Auburn Takes Series at Sold Out John Cropp Stadium in Wild Game
LEXINGTON, Ky. – In front of a sold out
crowd of 1,621 fans at John Cropp Stadium on a gusty Saturday afternoon in
Lexington, the No. 3 Auburn Tigers got two home runs in the top of the third
inning from Kasey Cooper and Courtney Shea to score five in the inning, and
added one more in the sixth to push the Tigers past Kentucky 6-5.
With Saturday’s result, Auburn captures the
series coupling the result on Saturday with its 9-0 win on Friday night over
No. 12 Kentucky. The Tigers improve to 32-4 on the season, and tie Kentucky in
second place in the Southeastern Conference with an 8-3 record in league action.
UK falls to 31-7 on the year and – along with Auburn – is just one game back of
Florida for the SEC lead with an 8-3 SEC mark.
Kelsey Nunley picks up the loss, even though
she pitched a great game for Kentucky, as she falls to 13-4 on the year. Auburn’s
Makayla Martin gets the decision for the Tigers, and improves to 8-0 this year.
Nunley struck out 11 batters on Saturday, just one off of her career-high 12
set twice this season.
The three-game SEC series will wrap up on
Sunday at John Cropp Stadium at 1 p.m. ET in Lexington. Like Saturday, very
limited amounts of tickets remain – and gates will open at Noon ET into the
stadium. For those that can’t make it – Dave Baker and Brian Milam will have
the call on the SEC Network+, ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app.
Key Stat
Five. Auburn scored five runs in the top of
the third inning on two home runs to left field, which gave the Tigers a
commanding lead in the early going of the game. Kasey Cooper and Courtney Shea
both hit what seemed to be normal pop flies to left, which got into the wind
and carried out for homers, as they were both two-run shots.
Key Play
With Kentucky trailing 6-4 in the bottom of
the sixth inning, Brooklin Hinz was on third base after a double allowed her to
score Abbey Cheek and make it a 6-4 game at the time. Breanne Ray then hit a
foul ball to the first base side, which was caught for the second out of the
inning – and scored Hinz from third.
Key Player
Abbey Cheek was the key player in the game for
Kentucky, as she scored two runs, including Kentucky’s first run in the bottom
of the second inning on a wild pitch.
Run Recap
Kentucky scored the game’s first run in the
bottom of the second inning. Abbey Cheek advanced to first to lead off the
inning on a dropped third strike, and was safe at the bag. After a Brooklin
Hinz SAC bunt and a Breanne Ray 4-3 groundout, Cheek scored from third on a
wild pitch. UK 1, AU 0
Auburn would score five times in the top of
the third inning. After a lead-off single from Tiffany Howard, Kasey Cooper hit
a homer to left to score two and put the Tigers on top. Maddie Gipson doubled
and then scored on a Courtney Shea homer to give AU the 5-1 lead. AU 5, UK 1
Christian Stokes and Jenny Schaper would peg
two back in the bottom of the fifth, as Stokes led off the inning with UK’s
first hit of the game, and a double down the line in right and got to third on
an error. Stokes scored on an RBI fielder’s choice by Schaper and that cut the
Auburn lead to 5-2. Schaper would come around to score on an RBI single from
freshman Katie Reed. AU 5, UK 3
The Tigers put their sixth run of the game on
the board in the top of the sixth inning via an Emily Carosone double to score
Tiffany Howard from first, who led off the inning with a slap single. AU 6,
UK 3
Kentucky hit back with two in the bottom of
the sixth, as the middle of the order came up big again. Cheek walked on two illegal
pitches and scored on an RBI double to right by Hinz. Hinz then scored on a
foul out with one out to the first base side, to make it 6-5. Kentucky was
unable to get a runner on base trailing by a run in the bottom of the seventh. FINAL
– No. 3 Auburn 6, No. 12 Kentucky 5
For
the latest on the Kentucky softball team, follow @UKSoftball on Twitter, Instagram
and Facebook, as well as on the web at UKathletics.com.
