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Auburn, Ala. - Elizabeth Eisterhold drove in three runs while pitcher Jenee Loree tossed her second no-hitter of the season as No. 20/19 Auburn softball defeated Presbyterian 8-0 in five innings.

Auburn improved to 21-3 with the win and remained unbeaten at home this season. The Tigers completed the War Eagle Classic with a 5-0 record. Auburn will next travel to Baton Rouge for a midweek double-header with No. 24/20 LSU on Wednesday. First pitch is slated for 4 p.m. CT.

“This was a really good weekend for us,“ Auburn head coach Tina Deese said. “We were able to get a lot of players some at-bats and time in the field. Obviously, Liz (Eisterhold) had a great weekend. It seemed like she was driving in a run every time she came to the plate. Jenee was tremendous today. Throwing two no-hitters in a season is a special accomplishment because they aren’t easy to come by. Now it’s time to take it up a notch. Conference play starts and everything gets tougher, more intense and doing the little things makes a bigger impact.“

Eisterhold’s three-RBI performance capped a successful weekend at the plate for the senior. In five games, Eisterhold hit .600 (9-for-15) with 12 RBI, one double, three home runs, seven runs scored and a .647 on-base percentage. Eisterhold’s three home runs gave her 29 for her career, moving her into fourth place in the Auburn career record books.

Against Presbyterian, Eisterhold delivered an RBI, driving in Brooke Lathan in the bottom of the first inning. Lathan doubled with one out and came home on Eisterhold’s single up the middle to give Auburn a 1-0 lead.

After a walk to Caitlin Jordan put runners at second and first, Amber Harrison punched a single through the right side to plate Eisterhold to give Auburn a 2-0 lead. Jordan took third on the play and scored on Baylee Stephens’ sac fly to right, making it a 3-0 game.

Caitlin Schultze gave the Tigers a 4-0 lead with a leadoff home run in the bottom of the second inning. It was Schultze’s first home run of the season and third of her career. Still in the second, Lathan made it a 5-0 game with a two-out, solo home run to center. It was Lathan’s fourth homer of the season.

Eisterhold racked up her 11th and 12th RBI of the weekend with a one-out, two-run homer in the bottom of the fourth inning. It was Eisterhold’s 29th career home run, seventh of the season, and it came with Lathan (walk) aboard to give the Tigers a 7-0 lead.

The Tigers ended the game in the fifth inning on the eight-run mercy rule. The Tigers loaded the bases with Branndi Melero (HBP) at third, Lauren Guzman (fielder’s choice) at second and Liana Wuchte (walk) at first. With Eisterhold at the plate, Presbyterian catcher Jen Marshall threw wild to third on a failed pickoff attempt. Melero was able to score on the errant throw, ending the game at 8-0.

Auburn pitcher Jenee Loree improved to 7-1 in the complete-game win. Loree threw her fourth career no-hitter. Loree last threw a no-hitter on Feb. 11 this season against Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne. Loree’s four no-hitters are third-most in Auburn history, trailing Holly Currie’s seven and Kristen Keyes’ five. Loree threw two no-hitters in 2009.

Loree fanned six and did not issue a walk in five innings of work. Presbyterian put four hitters on base, one by error, another by an out-producing fielder’s choice and two on hit-by-pitches.

Koger (1-1) worked 8 1/3 innings, surrendering five hits and a walk while striking out a career-high seven. The lefthander was charged for two of Belmont’s three runs, allowing a single run in the fifth and getting charged for one of Belmont’s two runs in the ninth.

“What an outstanding effort. He went out there and battled and that’s what you want,” Auburn Head Coach John Pawlowski said of Koger. “He is a competitor and he made some really big pitches. Unfortunately we weren’t able to give him much support.”

From the second through fourth innings Koger retired nine straight before his streak was snapped by a leadoff triple in the fifth by Drew Turner, who would score on a sac fly to tie the game at 1-1. The other run charged to him came after he left the game with one down in the ninth after allowing a double off the wall in left.

The decisive runs came with two down in the ninth and Zach Blatt on the mound as Turner singled up the middle to score Greg Brody from second. Ryan Tella’s throw home from center allowed Turner to take an extra base and then Blake Austin’s attempt on a play at second sailed back into center, allowing Turner to race all the way home.

Auburn finished the game with eight hits but hit into three inning-ending double plays. The first came in the third with the bases loaded, the second in the seventh with the bases loaded and the last in the eighth with men on the corners as Auburn stranded eight in the game.

“We certainly, when you look at the course of the game, had opportunities,” Pawlowski said. “They made some big pitches when they needed to and we weren’t able to push a couple of runs across today.”

Auburn’s lone run came in the second as Garrett Cooper launched his first home run of the season to start the inning.

Belmont reliever Josh Davis (2-1) earned the win with 1 2/3 innings of shutout baseball while Garrett Fanchier picked up his fourth save of the season with a 1-2-3 ninth.

Creede Simpson finished the game 1-for-3 with a walk, extending his streak of games reaching base safely to 21 while Dan Glevenyak was 1-for-4 to extend his hitting streak to 10 games.

Auburn returns to the field on Tuesday night at Mobile when it takes on South Alabama. First pitch is set for 6:30pm at Stanky Field.

“We had a purpose in mind, a goal in mind this week to take care of business in the midweek,” Auburn Head Coach John Pawlowski said. “It was not the prettiest baseball game but we did what we needed to do and we found a way to win today. We had plenty of opportunities and we have to seize those moments.”

Auburn found itself in a 3-0 hole as Alabama State tagged Auburn starter Rocky McCord for four hits and three runs in the first inning. It didn’t take long for Auburn to respond, however, as Jay Gonzalez tripled and scored in the bottom of the first. Auburn then took advantage of four second-inning walks to take a 4-3 lead off of Alabama State starter Luke Melymick (0-1). The walks were just the start of what would be a plethora of free base runners as Auburn worked 15 walks, had two hit batters and had two runners reach on an error to go along with its 12 hits.

Caleb Bowen, the eight-hole hitter, drew four of the walks and scored a team-high four runs, walking and scoring in the second, third, fifth and eighth innings to go along with a sixth-inning single.

Gonzalez finished the night 1-for-3 with two walks, three runs, three RBIs and two steals to up his stolen base total to a SEC-best 12 in just 10 games.

Trey Cochran-Gill (1-0) got the win out of the Auburn bullpen, working three innings and allowing a run on four hits. As a staff the Auburn bullpen threw six innings with Cory Luckie (two innings) and Dillon Ortman (one inning) each facing the minimum number of batters.

“I was really encouraged by Trey. He pitched through a little tough luck but I thought he threw the ball well,” Pawlowski said.

Cullen Wacker was 0-for-4 to have his eight-game hitting streak snapped while Simpson has now reached base safely in 14 games going back to last season.

The start of the game was delayed 25 minutes due to rain and then lasted 3 hours, 32 minutes.

Auburn returns to the diamond this weekend when it plays host to a four-team tournament. Auburn will face Purdue at 6pm on Friday and Charleston Southern and Southern Miss will play at 2pm. The tournament continues on Saturday with games at noon and 4pm and concludes on Sunday with games at 11am and 3pm. Auburn will play in the final game each day.

Courtesy Auburn Athletic Media Relations

JaMychal Green’s tip-in after a big Auburn defensive stand gave Alabama a 51-47 lead with 37 seconds left. Gabriel then missed a good look 3-pointer from the top of the key after an Auburn time out, and the Tide sealed it with free throws from there. Green finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds for the Tide, which defeated Auburn 51-49 in Tuscaloosa last season.

“I thought we guarded fairly well,” said Auburn head coach Tony Barbee. “We just couldn’t score. That has kind of been the story for this year.”

Alabama outshot Auburn from the foul line 24-of-32 to 5-of-12. In the second half alone, Gabriel had 10 points and six rebounds while Green had 13 points and six boards, making 7-of-10 foul shots.

Auburn (14-15, 4-11) jumped out to a 10-4 lead on a pair of 3-pointers from Noel Johnson. Alabama (20-9, 9-6), which answered with an 19-4 run, took its first lead of the game at 15-14 on a pair of free throws by Nick Jacobs at 8:16 followed by Rodney Cooper’s 3-pointer and a Jacobs foul shot to extend it to 23-14 with 3:13 left in the first.

Denson’s conventional 3-point play ended Auburn’s 8:14 scoreless drought to bring the Tigers to within 23-17. A 5-0 run by Denson closed it to within 23-19 with 1:41 to go. Sullivan’s driving layup made it 23-21 and then Gabriel missed a dunk just before the buzzer that would have tied it. The Tigers closed the half on a 7-0 run in the last two minutes after going over eight minutes without a point.

Gabriel’s bank shot to open the second half tied it at 23 and made it nine straight points for the Tigers.  The Tigers then used a 9-1 run to take a 34-31 lead on a Denson floater with 14:16 to play. Willy Kouassi tied it at 43 on a stickback with six minutes left. The Tide then scored four-straight points and held the Tigers scoreless until a pair of Gabriel free throws with 1:53 to go. However, Auburn only trailed 47-45 after that.

Auburn’s defense was tremendous as the Tigers held the Crimson Tide to only 31.1 percent shooting from the floor, 27.3 percent from 3-point range and had seven blocks. The Tigers shot 41.7 percent from the floor and 4-of-21 from behind the arc. Alabama outrebounded Auburn 39-31.

The Tigers played without five scholarship players, including Allen Payne, who had surgery on his left knee on Tuesday. Johnson played a season-high 27 minutes and Kouassi, who had four points, five rebounds and three blocks, played 17 minutes.

Trevor Lacey added 10 points for Alabama while going 2-of-3 from 3-point range.

Auburn returns home for its regular season finale against LSU on Saturday at 1 pm Central on Senior Day. The game will be televised by CBS.

Courtesy Auburn Athletic Media Relations

“Everything was really working tonight,” Jacobs said. “Blake (Austin) and I seemed to be on the same page all night, just getting fastball location going and getting a second pitch in the zone for a strike. That was the biggest thing was trying to pitch off my fastball and get my breaking ball going later in the game.”

Jacobs, who fanned nine three previous times, allowed a first-inning run before settling in for the next six innings, scattering three hits and two walks. Besides retiring his final 10 batters, he also set down 14 of the final 15 and 18 of the last 20 as all three of the hits he gave up were in the first inning.

“What a performance. Jon Luke was outstanding tonight,” Auburn Head Coach John Pawlowski said. “After the first inning when they got a couple of hits off of him he really settled in and gave us a quality outing tonight and certainly one that we needed.”

With Jacobs on cruise control the offense used the team speed to turn nine hits and six walks in seven runs as it stole seven bases and had three extra-base hits, including a pair of triples by Jay Gonzalez.

Gonzalez, who has reached base safely in all nine games this season, tripled and scored in the fourth and then tripled in a pair of runs in the ninth, finishing the game 3-for-4 with two runs, two RBIs, a walk and three stolen bases. The two triples marked the first time an Auburn player had a pair of three-baggers in a single game since Dominic Rich had three in a win over UNC Charlotte on March 4, 2000.

Creede Simpson, hitting in the two hole for the second straight game, finished the night 2-for-4 with a double, RBI and two runs scored, scoring on a Dan Glevenyak fielder’s choice in the first to make it 2-0 and again on a Cullen Wacker sac fly in the third that made it 3-0. He also had two steals. Wacker would finish the game 1-for-2 with two RBIs to extend his hitting streak to a personal-best eight games.

Rocky McCord (0-0) gets the starting nod on the mound on Wednesday for Auburn while Alabama State has not announced its starter yet.

Courtesy Auburn Athletic Media Relations