Auburn rides wind past UK softball 6-5 in series clincher

The drama extended beyond the base paths in Saturday’s showdown between third-ranked Auburn and 12th-ranked Kentucky.

After a 27-minute delay because of a substitution protest by Tigers Coach Clint Meyers, Auburn held on to knock off the Cats 6-5 at John Cropp Stadium and clinch the three-game series.

A sellout crowd of 1,721 saw Kentucky take a 1-0 lead in the second inning without notching a hit. Abbey Cheek struck out swinging at a wild pitch and beat the catcher’s throw to first. Cheek advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Brooklin Hinz, then reached third on Breanne Ray’s groundout before scoring on Auburn pitcher Makayla Martin’s second wild pitch of the inning.

But UK’s only lead of the day was short-lived as the third inning proved troublesome for the second day in a row. After working a full count off Kentucky starter Kelsey Nunley, Auburn’s Kasey Cooper sent a shot down the left-field line that appeared to hitch a ride on the wind over the wall. Gusts reached 41 miles per hour during the game.

An RBI double by Madi Gipson preceded another homer to left field, this one by Courtney Shea, that give the Tigers a five-run third inning for the second time in as many days.

“I’m 100 percent sure (the home runs) were wind-blown,” said UK Coach Rachel Lawson. “Both of them on a normal day are easy popups and then the wind just got hold of them … I don’t want to take anything away from them, but they were definitely wind-aided.”

Unlike in Friday’s series-opening 9-0 loss to the Tigers, UK fought back after digging a hole. Leading off the bottom of the fifth, Christian Stokes belted a double to right field for the Cats’ first hit of the day. Stokes reached third on Nunley’s groundout to the pitcher and came home when Jenny Schaper hit a grounder to the shortstop and beat Whitney Jordan’s throw to the plate. Katie Reed came through with a two-out single to center that scored Schaper and got Kentucky within 5-3.

That’s when things took an odd turn. Auburn’s coach Meyers filed a protest alleging Nunley shouldn’t have been allowed back in the game to pitch after a substitution by Lawson that let her bat in the previous inning.

After a lengthy on-field discussion between the head coaches and the umpires, one of the umpires disappeared into the Kentucky dugout with Lawson’s cellphone.

“We make that substitution all the time … Because we use it all the time I knew it was fine. It’s just a matter of getting it right, I guess,” said Lawson, a member of the NCAA softball rules committee. “We had to talk all the way to the top of the rules committee.”

After 27 minutes and several rounds of boos directed toward Meyers, Nunley made her way into the pitching circle, striking out the leadoff batter before giving up a bunt single and an RBI double to Emily Carosone. She ended the inning with her 11th strikeout of the game, one shy of her career high.

Hinz pulled the Cats within 6-5 with an RBI double and a run scored on a sacrifice fly in the sixth, but all three Kentucky batters went down on strikes in the seventh to seal the win for Auburn, locking the Cats and Tigers in a tie for second place in the SEC. The Cats will look to avoid the sweep and claim sole possession of second place in the series finale at 1 p.m. Sunday.

This story was originally published April 2, 2016 at 9:33 PM with the headline "Auburn rides wind past UK softball 6-5 in series clincher."