After sitting on the bench for the first eight innings, catcher Blake Austin found himself at the plate in the bottom of the ninth with a chance to give Auburn a win.
With runners on first and second, Austin sent the pitch high in the air and off the left-field wall for the game-winning double to give Auburn a 2-1 win over Alabama State.
"Blake certainly can throw," head coach John Pawlowski said. "I felt like we needed to do something there to help our defense, and Blake came up in a big situation and came up with a huge hit for us."
Auburn (20-13) didn't record a hit until second baseman Jordan Ebert ripped a single up the middle in the bottom of the eighth inning, extending his hitting streak to 10 games. Alabama State had retired 15 straight batters before Ebert's single.
"No, they didn't [seem comfortable]," Pawlowski said. "Give Alabama State credit. They pitched extremely well. And I know it's frustrating for our hitters, but you win and move on."
Alabama State (19-17) struck first, scoring on an Auburn error in the first inning to take a 1-0 lead. This marked the 16th time in the last 17 games the Tigers have trailed, and the unearned run was the team's 41st of the season.
Sophomore Trey Cochran-Gill got the start for Auburn and went two innings, giving up two hits and one unearned run.
Auburn used five pitchers in all, and they combined for four hits, nine strikeouts and no walks. Terrance Dedrick (3-2) recorded the win, pitching the final 2/3 innings, striking out two batters and giving up no hits.
"I thought our pitchers, we won the free-base war," Pawlowski said. "No hit by pitches, no walks with that many guys going. They did an outstanding job."
Alabama State sent Matt Burnside out for the start. Burnside graduated from Auburn and is now a graduate student at Alabama State. He pitched three hitless innings, but allowed an unearned run on five walks and a hit batter.
Auburn tied the game in the third inning on a bases loaded walk to first baseman Garrett Cooper, scoring center fielder Ryan Tella and evening the game at 1-1.
With one out in the top of the ninth and a runner on first base, Pawlowski replaced pitcher Justin Camp with Terrance Dedrick and also replaced catcher Kody Ortman with Blake Austin.
"One of the things that we looked at is we know they can run," Pawlowski said. "We know when we made the switch with Terrance Dedrick, he does a little better job of holding the running game. We felt it was the right situation for him."
Garrett Cooper led off the bottom of the ninth with a walk. Third baseman Damek Tomscha followed it up with a bunt single after the Alabama State pitcher fell down trying to field the ball.
Left fielder Bobby Andrews, making his first start of the season, tried to bunt the two runners over, but Cooper was thrown out at third. Pawlowski brought in freshman Sam Gillikin to pinch run for Tomscha at second base.
On a 0-1 pitch, Blake Austin sent a walk-off double off the left-field wall, scoring Gillikin and giving Auburn a 2-1 win.
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