Softball takes down Auburn in solid week

A historic  2-0 midweek win over Auburn punctuated a 3-2 week for the Troy softball team, which finished off the weekend with a 4-3 walk-off win over ULM on Senior Day. While the Trojans dropped the series to the conference-leading Warhawks after 4-2 and 6-2 losses, Troy salvaged the weekend.

Troy took down Auburn on Wednesday night, avenging two road losses to the Tigers earlier in the year behind six scoreless innings from Ella Cunningham. The win was the highest-attended win in program history and the first win over the Tigers since 2012.

Auburn would start off scoreless, and Troy would get run number one on the board early off a wild pitch to bring home Makaley Boswell. After holding Auburn scoreless in the second again, McKinnon Howard hit a single, Auburn had an error and a wild pitch, and all of a sudden Troy had doubled its lead.

What followed was a stalemate in the circle, with Cunningham slamming the door on the Tigers, helping Troy strand 12 baserunners in the win.“Today was a great day,” said head coach Eric Newell. “I’m just so happy for the girls, we’re starting to play some good softball and to beat a Power Four school is amazing.”

ULM is a softball power in the Sun Belt, currently fighting for a shot at the conference title, and it travelled to Troy to face the Trojans at home.

Game one was a battle that bled into extra innings. In the first inning, Kiley Huffman hit a single to get on base, and Mia Tidmore helped her get home with an RBI double to score a run. Dailynn Motes and Presley Ivey hit singles to get on base, and Boswell drove another run home.

It would get quiet until the fifth, when ULM brought in two runs to send it to extra innings. Late in the tenth, the Warhawks exploded offensively to win it, 4-2 ULM.

Game two would start with five ULM runs, which would prove to swamp the Trojans and prevent a comeback late in the game. Despite a two-run fourth inning, the game would end swinging ULM’s way with a final score of 6-2.

Game three was also Senior Day for the Trojans, their last home game of the season.  The game headed to extra-innings where in the 10th, Troy would cap off the day with a win as Ivey walked to bring a runner in and win the game 4-3.

A back-and-forth contest started with ULM jumping out to an early lead, but Huffman’s two RBIs and four hits from senior Megan Loftis helped Troy tie it 3-3 and send it to extras.

Senior Esmee Ames spun two scoreless innings in the ninth and 10th to set up Ivey’s walk-off walk.

While softball is not playing at home anymore, the Trojans take on Coastal Carolina on the road ahead of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament. The three-game series starts on April 30.