(Tucson, AZ) Arizona welcomed back Reyna Carranco after being injured in the UCLA series in Game. 2. She won the regular season batting title with a .433 average. With the anemic offense in the game against Harvard, Coach Mike Candrea needed a spark.
With Auburn’s lead off Casey McCrackin batter getting on with a single, Alyssa Rivera hit a tailor made double play ball to Jessie Harper who stepped on second and fired a throw to Rylee Pierce double up the runner.
The Tiger’s Lexie Handley walked Malia Martinez with two out in the bottom of the first and she advanced to second on a wild pitch but Dejah Mulipola grounded out to end the inning.
The top of the second saw Auburn get a two out double by Bree Fornis, but a weak grounder to Pierce at first ended the mild threat.
With Pierce leading off the home half of the second inning, Carranco came to bat under a standing ovation and promptly hot hard grounder to that tied up the third baseman Tannon Snow and both runner were safe. Hannah Bowen laid down a sacrifice bunt to move the runners up both into scoring position.
Last night’s hero Peanut Martinez after just missing a single to left that barely went foul, popped up to the third. Carli Campbell grounded to the shortstop to end the Wildcat threat.
Both teams had opportunities early on, but missing the key hit to jump out to the lead.
Auburn got the first two runners aboard to start the third inning. A sharp single to right field loaded the bases for the Tigers.
Arizona pitching coach Taryne Mowatt as she did last night, came out to settle McQuillin down. Whatever she said worked as McQuillin struck out Tannon Snow for the second out. Arizona dodged a bullet as Kendall Veach popped up to Mulipola to end the inning with the three Tiger runners stranded.
With the lead off batter getting on, Harper had the tables turned on her as she hit into a 6-4-3 double play. The Cats went mildly in their half of the third and both teams remained scoreless.
Shortstop Harper snagged a line drive off the bat of Justus Perry that was heading for the gap in left center. Auburn went down in order in the top half of the fourth inning.
The Wildcats got their lead off batter aboard when Pierce walked and Carranco singled to left field. Bowen did her job moving the runners up as she did two innings prior. This time, Peanut Martinez could get gets the run across as her grounder to third held Pierce at the base. T Statman pinch hitting for Campbell delivered the key hit that had been missing all game as her single to center drove in two runs and Arizona finally broke through on the scoreboard.
Palomino-Cardoza kept the inning alive with a single to right field but that’s all the Cats would get. Statman’s single as a pointy hitter made her 4-7 in that department.
The Cats hit the ball hard in the fifth, but the Tiger defense was positioned in the right place.
Auburn bright the tying run to the plate three in the their half of the sixth after Alyssa Rivera singled to lead off the inning but couldn’t get the job done as McQuillin slammed the door shut.
Arizona went quietly in the sixth inning as Tiger pitcher Handley set them down in order.
Bree Fornis got the Tigers on the board with a blast to straight away center over the wall by that’s all they’d get on this windy Saturday at Hillenbrand.
Arizona will wait and see who they play on Sunday at 4 pm
