After dropping their third consecutive SEC series at No. 8 Alabama last weekend, Auburn baseball has another tough test waiting for them with a home series this weekend against No. 11 South Carolina.
Just like the previous road series in Oxford at Ole Miss, Auburn lost a couple of games in Tuscaloosa in close, heartbreaking fashion.
In the game three rubber match, Alabama won the series with a two-out walk-off hit in the bottom of the ninth to take the 4-3 lead.
"Tough, emotional loss, no doubt about it," said head coach Sunny Golloway. "But our guys played really hard. The series could have gone either way with a base hit here or there, we all saw that."
After Alabama's game two 4-1 wins to tie up the series, Golloway shook up the lineup by starting seven freshmen in the field and giving closer Terrance Dedrick his first career start on the mound.
The freshmen-heavy lineup performed well, as they combined for 10 of Auburn's 12 total hits.
Brett Binning made his second career start at second base and went 3-for-4 on the day. Both Anfernee Grier and Connor Short had a pair of hits.
From the sound of his postseason interview, Golloway will continue to focus on developing the talented freshmen class after they performed in a hostile environment at a top-10 program.
"We started seven freshmen today, and our freshmen played really well and swung the bat really well," Golloway said. "(Alabama) has a veteran club, we have a young club, and we're going to continue to develop our freshmen and build our club."
Auburn won the opening game of the Alabama series in a close 2-1 pitcher's duel, and Golloway was satisfied with his two pitchers, Dillon Ortman and Keegan Thompson.
"(Ortman) was terrific," Golloway said. "As far as consistency, we might have the best Friday night guy in the league. He doesn't try to do too much.
"He pounds the zone. He pitches with courage."
Thompson was expected to be the usual Saturday starter, but he stepped up when the team needed him to while coming out of the bullpen for the first time of his college career and throwing two shutdown innings with five strikeouts to earn the save.
"My adrenaline was pumping coming in," Thompson said. "I just wanted to go out there and get it done for Dillon. He pitched his ass off."
Despite the close road win over their rival, Golloway was not pleased with the team's overall level of play, as Auburn also left the bases loaded three times throughout the game.
"We're just a much better team than what we played tonight," Golloway said. "I know it's a tough environment and everything. But we defended very well and we pitched it really well."
Although Auburn has fallen out of the top 25 rankings and lost their last three SEC series, they will look to bounce back and upset the No. 11 Gamecocks in front of a large home Plainsman Park crowd this A-Day weekend.
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