Courtesy of Tennessee Athletics
AUBURN, Ala. — Gretchen Aucoin, Scarlet McSwain, Shaliyah Geathers and Tory Lewis hit home runs and No. 11 Tennessee slugged its way past No. 7 Auburn, 8-6, on Friday at Jane B. Moore Field.
Tennessee (27-8, 7-4 SEC) scored one run in the first inning, reclaimed the lead with a three-run fourth and added four more in the sixth. Auburn (36-5, 9-2 SEC) scored one in the second, two in the third, one in the sixth and two in the seventh.
McSwain finished 2-of-4 with the home run, three RBIs and two runs. Lewis went 2-for-3 with an inside-the-park home run. Geathers’ home run was a three-run blast in the sixth.
Rainey Gaffin (5-1) earned the win after striking out seven and allowing two earned runs over five innings in relief. Aucoin started in the circle and allowed three earned runs over two frames.
Auburn used four pitchers and Rachael Walters (12-2) took the loss after allowing four earned runs in the sixth. Marcy Harper started the game and allowed four earned runs over 4.2 frames.
Aucoin gave Tennessee a 1-0 lead in the first inning, hitting a towering solo home run with two outs. Aucoin sent a 0-1 pitch from Auburn starter Marcy Harper high over the wall in right field for her seventh home run on the season and her sixth in SEC play.
Auburn evened the game at 1-1 when Jade Rhodes led off the bottom of the second inning with a solo blast to left field.
The Tigers took the lead in the third inning. With one on and no outs, Emily Carosone hit an RBI double to right center, scoring Tiffany Howard. Kasey Cooper followed with an RBI single to right center to plate Carosone and put Auburn up 3-1.
Tennessee struck back in the fourth inning, pulling ahead, 4-3, on a three-run homer by McSwain. Leadoff hitter Gaffin was hit by a pitch and two batters later Annie Aldrete drew a walk on a full count. McSwain clubbed a 2-2 pitch from Harper to right field for her second home run of the series and seventh of the season.
The Lady Vols grew their lead to 8-3 in the top of the sixth thanks to home runs by Geathers and Lewis. With two outs, Geathers crushed a three-run homer off Walters off the scoreboard in left field. In the next at-bat, Lewis hit an inside the park homer, flying around the bases on a ball hit off the wall in center field.
Auburn scored one run in the bottom of the sixth to pull to within 8-4. With one out and runners on second and third, Morgan Estell hit a sacrifice fly to the warning track in center field to plate Branndi Melero.
Auburn would not go quietly, scoring two in the bottom of the seventh before a groundout to short with runners on base ended the game.
Tennessee and Auburn will conclude their season series with Game 3 on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. CT/4:30 p.m. ET. The game will be televised live on SEC Network with Pam Ward as the play-by-play announcer and Cheri Kempf providing analysis. WNML 990 AM and UTSports.com will also have a live audio broadcast of the game with Brian Rice on the call.
