The No. 24 Auburn Tigers defeated the Mississippi State Bulldogs Saturday 10-6 in the second game of their third straight SEC West series to even the series at 1-1.
The Tigers improve to 16-11 on the season and 5-3 in SEC play. The Bulldogs fall to 18-10 on the season, 3-5 in the SEC.
Sophomore starting pitcher Will Kendall (4-0) took the win on the day, his fourth win in five starts.
"He did outstanding, he has three pitches and threw his changeup for strikes and threw his breaking ball when he needed to," said Auburn coach John Pawlowski. "We just didn't help him defensively."
Kendall retired the first 18 batters that he faced in six innings on the mound. In that period he only let up two hits, both to leadoff hitter Adam Frazier.
"I try to go out there and throw strikes, and I'm getting a little bit more comfortable in a starter role," Kendall said. "Trusting your stuff and staying confident is a big part of what I try to do."
Sophomore right fielder Jay Gonzalez drew first blood in the bottom of the first. He reached safely on a single, stole second base, reached third on a wild pitch and then scored on a throwing error to third.
"We wanted to come out and jump on them early and end the game as fast as possible," Gonzalez said. "Unfortunately, it was a little harder to do than that, but we wanted to put pressure on them early."
In the top of the seventh the Bulldogs put their first three runs up on the scoreboard bringing the score to 6-3. One walk, two singles, an error and sacrifice fly would end Kendall's day as he made way for sophomore right-hander Jay Wade.
The Bulldogs momentum would not last long as the Tigers would answer back in a big way in the bottom half of the inning. Junior first baseman Garrett Cooper started the rally with a double, followed by two more doubles from Cullen Wacker and Zach Alvord and walk to Kody Ortman.
With two men on and two outs, sophomore catcher Blake Austin sent a towering shot over the left field wall. The three run bomb was the coup de grace for the Tigers, making the score 10-3 going into the eighth.
"Our hitters did a good job staying off of the breaking balls and got themselves good hitting counts," Pawlowski said. "Two guys I thought had a really big day offensively are Kody Ortman and Blake Austin, who came up with a big home run."
In their final act, the Bulldogs scored three runs in the top of the ninth and left three men on base, making the final batter the tying run. Sophomore right-hander Dillon Ortman came in to close game, pitching a strikeout to get the final out.
"The SEC is just an incredible conference, you give teams and inch and they find themselves right back in the ball game," Pawlowski said. "Dillon Ortman made a big pitch at the end of the game to finish this thing off.
"It got a little ugly and got a little hairy, but it's a bottom line business, they found a way to win today and now we get to go to Sunday with the opportunity to win."
The Tigers and Bulldogs will play in the series deciding game three Sunday at 1 p.m.
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