Auburn evens series at Mississippi State with 9th Inning Home Run
No. 11 Mississippi State dropped Game Two of its series with Auburn on Friday night, setting up a rubber match on Saturday afternoon in the final regular season game at Dudy Noble Field this season.
No. 6 Auburn evened the series with a 5-4 win. They stranded 10 Bulldogs on base and rode pitchers Andreas Alvarez and Jackson Sanders throughout the contest. Despite the frustrating night at the plate for the Bulldogs, the game was tied up going into the ninth inning, but a solo home run put the dagger in.
The Bulldogs got another 1-2-3 start on the mound from Duke Stone, but the starter settled into his usual routine of letting baserunenrs aboard before dealing strikeouts. He tossed 4.2 innings with seven strikeouts and left five Tigers stranded in the process. It came at a cost, though, as the Tigers scored four runs on Stone.
Auburn got on the board first in the third inning, with Chase Fralick and Chris Rembert both driving in runs. Rembert added another in the fifth on a sacrifice groundout, followed by an RBI hit from freshman Ethin Bingaman to make it a 4-0 Auburn advantage. The hit also brought freshman Maddox Miller on in relief for the Bulldogs.
The Bulldogs finally got on the board in the bottom of the fifth. They had stranded seven runners on base up to that point, but Ace Reese got home on a two-run homer by Reed Stallman. The first baseman sent a 1-1 fastball just beyond the fence and into the left field lounge to halve the deficit.
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Miller posted a zero in the sixth and Ben Davis marked his return with two strong innings. He stranded two runners with a pair of strikeouts to close the top of the eighth without a run, and bought more time for the offense to try and switch on.
Bryce Chance provided a two-out RBI hit in the seventh to get one back, but the run stopped before it could get rolling with two Bulldogs left on base. The eighth inning brought the bottom of the order to the plate. Kevin Milewski drew a walk and advanced to second on a bunt by Ryder Woodson to turn it back to the top of the order.
Gehrig Frei made contact but hit a ball right at the shortstop. It stopped Milewski in his tracks and Frei was just out at first. It came down to Reese with two gone to try and get him home. He drove one into right to get the tying run home, but got caught going for second for out three.
Davis remained in the game for the ninth inning and gave up a solo shot to the leadoff hitter, Fralick. It put the Tigers back up 5-4, but Davis got three quick outs to send it to a do-or-die home half. It wasn’t to be as the Bulldogs went down 1-2-3.
Game Three will begin at 3 p.m. on Saturday.
