Auburn (56-10), which matched last year’s school record for victories, needs one more victory to advance to the championship series. Ending their opponent’s 31-game winning streak.
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Now they’ll have to count on Parker to be at her best in Wednesday’s clincher.
“I just think this team, they just kept fighting until the end”, she said.
By the time Carosone’s walk-off slam landed, the Sooners’ 7-0 second-inning lead seemed a distant memory. “But I’m extremely proud of them, to have this opportunity”. On the play that produced the winning run, Carosone was called out because she ran outside the basepath.
Auburn (57-10) sewed up a berth in the best-of-three final against either Oklahoma or LSU. Seniors Emily Carosone and Jade Rhodes have been big this week, Rhodes hitting a mammoth home run in the victory over FSU. “We know how to handle it. the season’s not over yet”.
Georgia coach Lu Harris-Champer said it was just one of those days for Bell. The Sooners exploded for seven runs in the first two innings, but Auburn battled back with five runs of their own in the bottom of the second before a two run homer from Kasey Cooper tied it at seven in the bottom of the fourth.
Oklahoma scored all of its runs in the third inning on Sydney Romero’s three-run homer, and Parker held the Tigers scoreless until the bottom of the seventh.
The Sooners just missed taking a 2 run lead in the sixth when Tiffany Howard made the defensive play of the series when she made a leaping catch at the railing in left field to rob Shay Knighten of a two run homer.
Auburn’s infield defense continued to suffer on a pair of RBI bunts, as Sooners pushed their lead to 5-0.
Florida State got out to an early lead in the top of the first inning as Jessica Warren was hit by a pitch, her team-leading 22nd HBP of the season. Klaevemann came in to score a batter later as Warren hit an RBI single to right, tying the game at 3-3. “So I knew it would come down to the last inning”. But that terrible day in Sooner sports history also is of historic significance for another reason: It was the last time the eight-time Big 12-champion OU softball team lost a game this season.
Betsa was dominant for most of the game, but she cracked just a bit in the third inning.
Auburn didn’t. The Tigers worked the bases loaded and then smacked a walk off grand slam off Jayden Chesnut to win the game and force a deciding Game 3. Later, in the bottom of the fourth inning, Auburn completed the comeback with a 2-run home run that tied the game (via ESPN).
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There were four errors committed in Game 2, a surprising total for two teams of this defensive caliber, but the brilliant plays overshadowed the miscues. Parker struck out four and allowed three runs on eight hits with two walks. I mean, the freshmen that came in when he got here, they automatically bought in because that’s all they knew.
