Matthew Stevens

Montgomery Advertiser

STARKVILLE, Miss. – Let the Auburn softball postseason run continue.

For the second straight year, Auburn will be taking a Southeastern Conference tournament trophy back home to the McWhorter Center complex after a comfortable 7-1 win over No. 12 LSU Saturday.

In the last two years, Auburn is 8-1 in SEC tournament play and thanks to continued defensive excellence and dominant starting pitching. In the single elimination format of this tournament, Auburn gave up a total of just six total runs in three games.

“It’s the same pitchers that threw (in losses) against Tennessee, same pitchers against A&M but there’s that commitment and focus,” Auburn coach Clint Myers said. “We pitched it to contact as well as you can expect.”

Before 2015, Auburn had never won a championship of any kind in the sport of softball and now they will watch the NCAA Tournament selection Sunday night with the expectation of being a national seed for the second straight year.

“I think our motto was ‘New beginnings: Chapter 1’ and now it’s ‘New beginnings Chapter 1.2’,” Auburn second baseman Emily Carosone said. “We’re just going to try to keep setting records and keep breaking records.”

Auburn (49-9) jumped all over LSU ace starting pitcher Sydney Smith (12-3) to four runs in a second inning that saw solid contact from the bottom of Auburn’s lineup and shaky LSU defense. Solid singles by Auburn’s Madi Gipson and Whitney Jordan were compounded by fielding errors by LSU second baseman Constance Quinn and catcher Kellsi Kloss. Carosone broke the game wide open on a two-RBI single that eventually cleared the loaded bases after LSU (45-15) was done kicking the ball around.

“You can’t give an offense that swings it like that extra opportunities,” LSU head coach Beth Torina said. “We just got outplayed.”

For the second consecutive year, Carosone was named SEC Tournament most valuable player after she led the team with five hits, four RBIs and two runs scored throughout the event.

Suddenly in the first meeting between the two schools in over a year, Auburn was handing the ball to freshman ace Makayla Martin (12-3) with a four-run lead. Without recording a single strikeout, Martin gave up just one earned run over five innings by scattering five hits in an efficient 70-pitch effort.

Auburn added insurance runs in the form of a RBI single by Jade Rhodes and the first career home run by senior outfielder and leadoff hitter Tiffany Howard. Howard, who had experienced a home run in 676 previous at-bats took a pitch off LSU right-hander Allie Walljasper deep over wall to produce the winning margin.

“I knew it felt good because I didn’t even feel it come off the bat,” Howard said. “I knew it was a good hit but usually it hits the fence or somebody makes a great play on anything that is hit that hard.”

Both programs were in the championship on unusual circumstances as Auburn won two games against No. 4 Alabama and No. 1 Florida on Friday to continue the defense of their SEC tournament championship. LSU, the seventh seed in the league tournament was playing for in its fourth consecutive day after defeating No. 16 Texas A&M, No. 11 Kentucky and No. 10 Tennessee.

Auburn will now watch the NCAA Tournament selection show Sunday night on ESPNU confidently feeling they will be a national seed and therefore, guaranteed to host each of the rounds they advance until the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City, Okla.

“I think there was a statement made and I think the committee will recognize,” Myers said. “I believe we’re a top eight team and our play this week clearly showed we were.”