#23 Tigers Claw Back To Shock Mississippi State, 6-4
May 25, 2016 | Softball
Official Game Statistics
STARKVILLE, Miss. - Homestanding Mississippi State sent 10 batters to the plate in a four-run first inning, but 23rd-ranked Auburn scored six unanswered runs of its own, including three in the seventh, to shock the upset-minded Bulldogs and take the weekend series with a 6-4 comeback victory in the rubber match of the set Sunday afternoon at the MSU Softball Field.
The loss prevented the Bulldogs (27-15, 6-9 SEC) from prevailing in its third consecutive SEC series after sweeping visiting Kentucky last weekend and taking two of three from 25th-ranked LSU on Wednesday and Thursday. Auburn (36-10, 10-4) won its second consecutive league set with the outcome.
MSU freshman Courtney Bures singled and doubled in four trips to the plate, while sophomore Blair Geddings drove in a run on a 2-for-3 hitting line, to pace the Maroon and White offense. Tanelda McDonald singled, walked and drove in a run in two official plate appearances to stretch her career-long hitting streak out to nine games. The Tigers were keyed by a 8-for-16 tally by the first four hitters in its lineup, which also accounted for all six RBI in the game for the visitors.
MSU starter Kelli Miller, making her seventh appearance in nine games for the Bulldogs, scattered four hits and three earned runs across four innings, but did not get the decision. Freshman Ragan Blake (1-2) came on in relief of Miller with no outs in the fifth and allowed a trio of earned runs on six hits to saddle the loss for MState.
Likewise, Auburn starter Holly Currie went without the decision as well, despite allowing four runs on four hits in her shortest start of the season (two-thirds of an inning). Game one winner Beth DePietro (19-4) relieved Currie with two outs in the first and struck out eight while allowing three hits to pick up the win for the visitors.
We wanted to get four innings out of Kelli and three out of Ragan and I thought we would we be in good shape with that, said Mississippi State head coach Jay Miller. When Kelli got to that fourth inning, she just ran out of gas. We didn't make a couple plays behind them but, really, we had some opportunities to drive in some more runs. We got four runs in the first inning and sat on it. We have to get a better mentality of going out and finishing people off when we have the opportunity.
After seeing its first two batters of the game go down, Mississippi State would send seven more batters to the plate in the bottom of the first to climb on Currie and chase the righthander from the game. State got a two-out single from Bures and a ensuing walk by McDonald to put a pair of runners on and, after a wild pitch by Currie moved both into position, Jennifer Jessup finished off the threat with a double to the gap in left field that gave the Maroon and White a quick 2-0 lead.
The Bulldogs were not done, however, as Katie Johnson followed with a RBI single to push the advantage out to three and, two batters late, Geddings' single through the left side gave MSU a 4-0 lead heading into the second.
Auburn got their first runs of the game on a two-run single by Currie in the third, then cut its deficit to a single run, 4-3, on Kristina McCain's single to right centerfield in the fifth. The Tigers would finish out their comeback in the seventh, getting a leadoff double from Lolani Alvarez, a RBI single from McCain and a two-run homer from Currie to provide the final.
Having put a close to its season-long nine-game homestand, the Bulldogs will return to action on Wednesday when they head to Hattiesburg for the second half of a home-and-home doubleheader with Southern Miss (19-21). The contest has been slated for a 6 p.m. first pitch at the Southern Miss Softball Complex. State will step back into SEC play this weekend when the Maroon and White travels to Tuscaloosa, Ala., for a weekend series with the 11th-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide (40-9, 13-5).
