Softball Falls To No. 3 Auburn In 14-Inning SEC Opener

Friday, March 18

Starkville

6:00 PM

Mississippi State

18-7, 0-1

#3 Auburn

25-3, 2-2

Auburn

Mississippi State

Softball Falls To No. 3 Auburn In 14-Inning SEC Opener

March 19, 2016 | Softball

Box Score

By: hailstate.com

STARKVILLE, Miss. – A 14-inning pitching marathon to open the Southeastern Conference slate for the Mississippi State softball team (18-7, 0-1 SEC) ended in a hard-fought 3-2 loss to No. 3 Auburn (25-3, 2-2 SEC).

MSU played in its first extra-inning game since February 21, a win against Samford. The game was the longest the Bulldogs had played since March 8, 2013, a 1-0 loss to LSU in 14 innings.

“Our game plan was to come in and fight,” head coach Vann Stuedeman said. “Nobody expected us to come in and have a game like this with them except for us. We know what our team is made of and we showed that tonight. I am proud of our girls.”

Auburn struck first, with senior Jade Rhodes plating Kasey Cooper in the first inning on a base hit.

The Bulldogs responded two innings later on a groundout by senior Kayla Winkfield that scored freshman Emily Heimberger from third to knot the score up at one run apiece. Junior Caroline Seitz legged out an infield single to score senior Loryn Nichols, putting MSU ahead 2-1 after three innings.

Auburn tied up the score at two in the sixth on a solo shot to left field by Rhodes.

In the top of the seventh, junior Amanda Ivy made another one of her many diving catches on the night to keep the Tigers off the base paths. From that point on, it was an all-out pitcher's duel between the Bulldogs and the Tigers.

Both sides struggled to get runners on and on the rare occasion they did, opposing defenses kept them from crossing the plate.

In the top of the 14th, Kasey Cooper hit a leadoff double for the Tigers. A sacrifice fly would move her to third before a two-out wild pitch brought her across to give the Tigers the 3-2 lead that would stand as the final sore.

Junior Alexis Silkwood (0-2) suffered the loss in an outing in which she set a career high in pitches thrown with 216 over 13.1 innings pitched, also a career high. Silkwood faced a program-record 58 batters on the evening and struck out four before giving way to freshman Regan Green, who retired the final two batters in the 14th.

Auburn starter Makayla Martin pitched four innings, giving up three hits while both walking and striking out three. The freshman gave up two runs to the Bulldogs before Kaylee Carlson (6-0), entered in relief in the fifth. Carlson pitched 10 shutout innings, allowing just three hits and striking out a dozen MSU batters to earn the win for the Tigers.

The Bulldogs will turn to Saturday for game two of the series with first pitch set for 2 p.m. CT from Nusz Park. Admission is free for all regular season games at Nusz Park and the game will air on SEC Network+, exclusively through WatchESPN.com and the Watch ESPN app. The voice of Bulldog softball, Anthony Craven, will have the call.

For more information on the MSU softball program, follow “HailStateSB” on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. You can also find all-access coverage of the Bulldogs on SnapChat by searching for “HailStateSnap.”