Auburn’s junior softball team played so many games Saturday, head coach Brian Gunter couldn’t remember them all.

“I’ve done travel ball for years and we’ve never played that many games back to back like that,” said Gunter of the Lady Wildcats’ six-game marathon in the Tri-County tournament in Snellville, five of them do-or-die games. “To put up with that kind of heat all day long was excruciating as a coach and as a parent, and I couldn’t imagine playing in it.”

Auburn, which got to the quarterfinals of the draw last weekend with a first-round win over Mountain Park, started play at 10:45 a.m. Saturday with third-seeded Grayson and lost, 7-2, dropping them into the loser’s bracket.

They turned right around for a rematch with Mountain Park, and overcame an early 6-1 deficit to win 10-6. They kept right on churning, squeezing out a 7-6 nailbiter over North Gwinnett then knocking out Dacula, the top seed in the tournament, with an 11-6 win.

That set up a semifinal rematch with Grayson. With the sun still beating down on the field, the Lady Cats knocked off the Rams 6-4. Since Grayson had not lost in the tournament to that point, the Lady Rams had the right to play one more challenge game with the winner taking all.

The game started at 8:15 p.m., but after nearly 12 consecutive hours of softball, Auburn finally petered out, falling 9-6.

“Grayson did a good job, they did what they had to do to win,” Gunter said Tuesday. “But in basically 100-degree heat, our girls were so worn out that even the first time we got back to Grayson, I was shocked we even made it back. The girls came through big time. They did what they had to do. I don’t think anybody could have played harder than they played considering the heat and the fatigue they had to go through.”

Marissa Merrill had an excellent tournament at the dish for Auburn, including a three-run over-the-fence homer in the final game against Grayson (she just missed two others in other games). Ashley Gunter took the ball on the mound in every game, save for a few innings when she got spelled in one game. For their efforts, tournament director Tim Gaines awarded Auburn an informal IronWoman award for the tournament.

Brian Gunter said he was proud of the way the entire team played throughout the two weekends.

“It was a total team effort,” he said.

The Tri-County tournament represented the end of the line for the youth softball teams. However, Gunter said he didn’t think any Auburn team had ever placed second in both the pre-Tri County and Tri-County tournaments before.

Also last week, Barrow’s minor team also lost its third game of the tournament and was eliminated Tuesday at the hands of Brookwood, going down 13-1.