The baseball team hosted SEC rival Arkansas Saturday, April 4, in the second of a three-game weekend series.
Following the close loss to the Razorbacks on Friday, April 3, the Tigers won 3-2 in a close game that was decided in the bottom of the ninth inning.
“I’m just proud of all of our guys, not just Keegan [Thompson], “ said head coach Sunny Golloway. “I thought everybody had to have a gut check performance.”
Sophomore pitcher Keegan Thompson got the start and ended up going all nine innings in his win of the season. After the game, Thompson said he felt he controlled most of his pitches well.
“I had pretty good stuff,” Thompson said. “I was locating my fastball pretty well. My curveball was pretty sharp in the beginning. I had a little trouble with my slider towards the beginning of the game, but as the game went on it started coming back to me a little bit. I thought I kept my balance pretty well.”
As opposed to Friday’s 10-7 loss, Saturday’s game was more predicated on the defense.
Thompson said what it was like pitching with such strong defense.
“Anfernee [Grier] made two great diving catches in the outfield,” Thompson said. “Cody made that great play up the middle to get the last out. Head up defense like that to pitch in front of just makes it easier to throw strikes.”
Auburn was first to appear on the scoreboard when junior Melvin Gray scored off a grounder hit by sophomore Ben Craft. Craft and sophomore Kyler Deese, who was on base following a single that moved Gray into scoring position, both got out on the play, but it was enough to get a run.
The run is considered unearned because Gray initially reached base by way of an error from Arkansas’ second baseman.
The next score did not come until the top of the fifth inning. Arkansas’ tying score came after a double to the gap in left-center field and a single that moves players to first and third. An Arkansas grounder led to an Auburn double play, but only after the runner on third scored.
The Tigers reclaimed the lead in the bottom of the sixth inning when Grier scored off of grounder that saw Daniel Robert getting thrown out at first.
In the same inning, sophomore Blake Logan had his first career-stolen base.
In the top of the seventh inning, the Razorbacks scored again off a double to right-center field to take the score to 2-2.
Thompson kept the score 2-2 through the top of the ninth.
In the bottom, Cody Nulph took a pitch to the back with bases loaded sending in Melvin Gray in for the final score.
“Our guys are really focused right now,” Golloway said. “They’re doing a good job of staying focused even when they get frustrated not being able to score runs. There’s a maturity about them right now that I really like.”
Auburn will face Arkansas Sunday, April 5, at Auburn for the third and last game in the series.
The Tigers sit at 19-12 on the season and 4-7 in conference.
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