The No. 21 Auburn Tigers had a successful opening weekend in Clearwater, Florida by winning four games, all in shutout fashion.
A key component to Auburn’s success was solid pitching, especially from junior [autotag]Maddie Penta[/autotag].
Penta struck out 31 batters while issuing just three walks over 15.0 innings of work over three games. The stellar opening weekend was deemed worthy of honor by the Southeastern Conference. The SEC announced their players of the week on Monday and listed Penta as the conference’s pitcher of the week.
Penta began the weekend by striking out 11 batters in Auburn’s 9-0 win over Fordham on Friday evening. She allowed just three hits to the Rams while walking one batter in five innings of work. She followed that performance by striking out 11 more batters in Saturday’s 9-0 win over Indiana.
She closed the weekend by earning her third win of the season in a 10-0 run-rule win over Illinois on Sunday, where she struck out nine batters. Penta credited her breaking pitches for her success in Sunday’s win.
“My rise ball and my drop ball, which is a new addition to my pitching arsenal, usually don’t work on the same day, but today, they both worked,” Penta said.
Auburn Softball will play their home opener on Friday at 3 p.m. CT against Austin Peay as part of the Tiger Invitational at Jane B. Moore Field.
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