The No. 3 seed Auburn Tigers (40-16, 15-9 SEC) earned an 8-7 comeback victory over the No. 11 seed Ole Miss Rebels (30-26, 8-16 SEC) in the quarterfinals round of the SEC Tournament.
“It’s easy to win the pretty games,” said Auburn head coach [autotag]Mickey Dean[/autotag]. “It’s difficult to win the ugly games. We had to continue to fight back all game long. Being able to answer right back after they scored six runs in the third inning was a huge key to the game. Annabelle (Widra) came into the game and gave up only one earned run. Those two things put our defense and hitters into a position to win that game.”
Junior right-hander [autotag]Maddie Penta[/autotag] got the start for Auburn and allowed an uncharacteristically high five runs off of seven hits, walked four batters and struck four out in 4.1 innings. Sophomore right-hander [autotag]Annabelle Widra[/autotag] earned the win for the Tigers in 2.2 innings of relief in which she allowed two runs off of four hits, no walks, and struck two batters out.
[autotag]Lindsey Garcia[/autotag] got the scoring started in the bottom of the first inning with a single up the middle that drove in two runs.
The Rebels took control in the third inning, scoring six runs.
Auburn battled back but was unable to even the score until [autotag]Icess Tresvik[/autotag] hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth inning to tie the game at seven.
“We worked too hard to let someone beat us easily,” Tresvik said. “We can’t dwell on the little things. We have to flush it and keep fighting. We are all big competitors. We hate losing. We’ve played them before. We knew what to expect. We just had to dig deep mentality and keep fighting.”
[autotag]Rose Roach[/autotag] put the Tigers on top later in the inning with an RBI single through the right side of the infield.
That was all of the scoring in the Tigers’ 8-7 victory over the Rebels which earned them a spot in the next round.
Auburn will take on the No. 10 seed South Carolina Gamecocks (36-19, 9-15 SEC) in the semifinals on Friday at 3:00 p.m. CDT. The broadcast will be available on ESPN2.
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