The Auburn Tigers looked to sweep the series with Southern University but fell short, dropping game three of the series 6-5 Sunday, Feb. 28, at Plainsman Park.
A baserunning error caused the Tigers to miss an early opportunity to put runs on the board in the bottom of the first. With one out, Joshua Palacios on second and Jordan Ebert on first, Niko Buentello smacked a line drive off the “Green Monster” in left field.
Ebert attempted to go from first to third, but Palacios only made it to third after appearing to slow himself down watching the ball. Ebert was tagged out in the basepath.
Auburn coach Butch Thompson said because of that, they “ended up scoring no runs.”
“It’s our park and our wall, Thompson said. "For the back runner to run up the lead runner there was unfortunate. The run could have been the difference in the outcome of the game."
Starting pitcher Gabe Klobosits found himself in trouble in the second inning. Southern’s first baseman John Pope hit a 3-run home run to give Southern a 3-0 lead, its first lead of the series.
Klobosits managed to get out of the top of the third with no damage. Palacios hit an RBI single down the right field line to score Foster from second for the Tigers first run of the game in the bottom of the inning.
Klobosits had trouble again in the fourth inning. True freshman Casey Mize came in to relieve him after he gave up two runs with one out and two on base.“I thought Casey did a tremendous job of coming in,” Thompson said. “Once he got in the ball game, to finish the game and give us a chance to win that’s all we could ask for.”
Mize struck out there and walked none in 5.2 innings pitched for Auburn. He allowed one unearned run on three hits.
Auburn continued to fight, scoring a run in each inning from the fifth through the eighth.
“We clawed and clawed,” Thompson said.
Jackson Burgreen came in to pinch hit for Damon Haecker in the bottom of the eighth, hitting a double and scoring a run on a balk by the pitcher to cut the deficit to 6-5. But the Jaguars continued to play their best defense of the series, and the Tigers' second baserunning error stopped them from scoring a run.
Anfernee Grier advanced from first to second when Joshua Palacios singled to left field, but was tagged for the final out of the half inning after trying to advance safely to third.
“That was the difference in the ballgame,” Thompson said. He added that they trust Grier to make the decision to run from first to third, but that the left fielder made “a perfect throw.”
“It was the third out of the inning, kind of the cardinal sin of baseball, but I have trouble finding fault with the aggressiveness of the play.”
Thompson felt that playing more “team baseball” instead of taking individual at bats and swings would have helped the team offensively. He said playing more cohesively would have given the Tigers “a chance to connect as an offense ... to play offense and score runs.”
Touching on the element of playing as a “team” was Coach Thompson’s message to the players after the game.
“I told them we win or lose together,” he said. “I told them another definition of positive is a proper response. It was pretty easy to check out or be mad, but every one of us has this uniform on and I expect a proper response for everybody that cares about this.”
This was the third one-run loss for the Tigers, who are now 4-3 on the season. Auburn returns to Plainsman Park at 3 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday for games against Alabama A&M.
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