Before a crucial home series against Missouri this weekend, Auburn baseball beat Kennesaw State 10-5 on Tuesday night.
Auburn opened a 6-0 lead early with some solid hitting, but wild pitching and rough defense put the Owls back in the game following a long sixth inning.
The Tigers locked down Kennesaw State in the final three innings, though, to set up another non-conference win.
"It is hard to win that game because that game right there is a grind. I'm not going to sit here and say we're not kind of looking ahead," said Auburn head coach Sunny Golloway. "Thursday is [big] for our program. We're going to be on national television. We're looking forward to competing against Missouri and it's kind of a set up for us so we had to grind this one out."
In the first two innings, Auburn's starting pitcher Trey Wingenter allowed two runners to get on base each inning but was able to escape each inning without any runs.
Auburn's bats responded in the bottom of the second when Daniel Robert hit an RBI single to score Ryan Tella, who reached on a single and stole second base. Then Sam Gillikin hit a two-RBI double to score both Robert and Dan Glevenyak. Jordan Ebert followed with another RBI single to make it 4-0 after two innings.
Tella led off the bottom of the third with a homer clearing the right field fence, which was his second consecutive game with a home run and third of the season. Later in the inning Keegan Thompson hit an RBI single to bring Glevenyak home for Auburn's sixth run.
Wingenter let up a single and double in the fourth inning but was able to keep Kennesaw State scoreless once again.
In the fifth Wingenter kept his shutout going and threw his fifth strikeout of the game, which is his career-high. Wingenter also earned his first win of the season.
Kennesaw State's Alex Liquori led off the top of the sixth with a double and then a wild pitch advanced him to third. Brennan Morgan hit an RBI single to make it 6-1. That was it for Wingenter as Jacob Milliman replaced him with runners on first and second base and no outs.
After a wild pitch advanced their runners to second and third, Milliman threw two strikeouts but then threw his second wild pitch to bring in Kennesaw State's second run.
With two outs and runners on the corners Daniel Koger took over for Milliman. Kennesaw State's Jacob Bruce then hit a two-RBI double to cut Auburn's lead to 6-4. A single followed by an error then made it 6-5.
But in the bottom of the sixth, Auburn was able to score two more runs to increase their lead to 8-5. Damon Haecker hit an RBI single and then Connor Short put down a suicide squeeze RBI bunt to score Ebert.
Jay Wade then took over Auburn's pitching duties and threw a 1-2-3 seven-pitch seventh inning.
In the bottom of the eighth, Auburn added another two-run inning. Thompson and Gillikin started it off with singles and then Haecker hit a two-RBI single to bring in both runners.
"Tonight was a great win for the guys. We fought hard," Gillikin said. "It got a little close there at one point but we really put our foot down."
Wade pitched two innings and allowed one hit on zero runs before Reid Carter replaced him in the ninth forcing a pop fly and two strikeouts to seal Auburn's 10-5 win.
Auburn opens up their series against Missouri this Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at Plainsman Park and will also be televised on ESPNU.
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