The Lady Bulldogs softball team dropped two of their three games this weekend against the Tigers of Auburn. The Dawgs record fell to 24-18 overall with a 6-9 record inside the Southeastern Conference.
Mississippi State struggled from the start of the first game as shortstop Courtney Bures was caught stealing.
The Auburn bats then came alive in the second inning scoring four runs, two off of a left-centerfield blast from Auburn catcher Sara Dean.
The Bulldogs best chance to get back in the game came in the third inning. Two Auburn errors and a walk loaded the bases for first baseman Lindsay Hunley with no outs.
But MSU was only able to eek out one run as Hunley struck out, Bures hit a sacrifice fly and Tanelda McDonald blooped out to first base.
The Bulldogs were never able to catch the Tigers; scoring only one more run while Auburn continued to score six more. The lack of offense led to 10-2 Auburn victory in just 5 innings.
The Bulldogs used four pitchers in the game with none of them lasting two innings. Meanwhile Auburn pitcher Beth DiPietro lasted all five innings, striking out four and allowing only one earned run.
However, the Bulldogs put the first game behind them and were determined not to lose the second of the Saturday doubleheader.
The Bulldogs came out hot as Bures drove in the first three runs of the game with a single in the first and her 11th homer of the year in the third.
Bures credited a conversation with Coach Jay Miller between games for her concentration at the plate.
“Coach told me to go up there with a plan and know what pitch I want to hit. That settled me down and helped me a lot,” Bures said.
The Bulldogs added another run in the fifth inning to give them a 4-1 lead. But the Tigers mounted a comeback against Bulldogs pitcher Kelli Miller. Miller had pitched a great game until giving up a RBI double, followed by a RBI single. Coach Miller called in freshman Ragan Blake to stop the Auburn rally.
Blake was successful, allowing only one hit and striking out three in 1.1 innings and giving the Bulldogs the 4-3 victory.
“We got great pitching in the second game,” Coach Miller said. “Kelli and Ragan did a great job. Ragan came in and really just shut them down and dominated.”
Kelli Miller was credited with the win after a gutsy performance. Miller been hit hard on a line drive straight back at her in the third inning.
“I’ve been hit a lot, but everybody gets hurt or gets hit, there’s nothing you can do about it except ice it later on,” Miller said.
The rubber match of the three game series was held Sunday.
Miller took the mound again for MSU and Holly Currie pitching for the Tigers. Currie had received the loss for Auburn on Saturday after giving up three earned runs on seven hits and walking four batters.
Currie was once again hit hard as she failed to get out of the first inning, her shortest outing of the year, giving up four runs and walking two.
Unfortunately for the Dawgs, Saturday’s game one winner DiPietro entered the game and did not allow another Bulldog run.
However, the four first inning runs was nearly enough for the Bulldogs as Miller and Blake once again teamed up to contain the Auburn bats. The duo kept MSU in the lead for six innings allowing only three runs.
The Tigers came to bat in seventh down by a score of 4-3 with only three outs between them and a loss.
But second baseman Lolani Alvarez reached second on a two-base error and was driven home on a single by Kristina McCain tying the game at four.
That was all the stage slugger Currie needed, as she belted a two run homer to give Auburn the 6-4 win.
The loss was credited to Blake, dropping her record to 1-2. Coach Miller had a plan for his pitchers but the plan failed to realize during the game.
“We wanted to get four innings out of Kelli and three innings out of Ragan and we thought we would be in good shape,” Miller said. “Instead we got three out of Kelli and three out of Ragan and we couldn’t get a fourth, they just sort of ran out of gas.”
However, the Bulldogs did have six innings to score some more runs but were held silent as DiPietro struck out eight in 6.1 innings.
“We didn’t do a very good job at the plate. We had too many called third strikes, especially with runners in scoring position. We’ve got to have a better mindset at the plate andgo up there and look to drive in runs,” Miller said.