Auburn knocks Missouri out of SEC softball tourney

BATON ROUGE, La. - The No. 13 Missouri Tigers were eliminated from the Southeastern Conference softball tournament with a 5-2 loss Thursday to the No. 7 Auburn Tigers.

Missouri scored the first run of the game on a first-inning RBI single by Corrin Genovese, driving in Sami Fagan, who walked. That was all the scoring the seventh-seeded Tigers would do until the sixth inning, however, leaving the bases loaded in the first and failing to capitalize on at least one runner in each of the next four innings.

Auburn, the No. 2 seed in the tournament, scored one run in the third and two in the fourth and fifth, despite being outhit 6-4.

Missouri pushed one run across in the sixth on a wild pitch, but that was the extent of its rally.

Freshman lefty Paige Lowary (18-5) took the loss, allowing three earned runs, four hits and striking out five.

"She did okay," Missouri head coach Ehren Earleywine said. "Four hits against Auburn is a good job. She would be the first one to tell you that she didn't locate very well today. She still pitched well enough to win."

Auburn (47-9) advances to play third-seeded Alabama at 2 p.m. today. Missouri (39-14) awaits its NCAA Tournament seed.

"I don't know what the formula is for the RPI, and I'll let those people figure it out," Earleywine said. "I'm confident in my team. If we were granted one of those No. 1 seeds, we'd make the NCAA proud."

The NCAA Tournament brackets will be announced at 10 p.m. Sunday.