Auburn traveled to Columbia, Missouri, on Thursday to take on the Tigers and walked away with its first SEC road win. Auburn battled back from a 9-5 deficit to eventually win by a score of 11-9.
Pitching was the difference as Auburn got five crucial relief innings from Ben Braymer as the Tigers mounted their comeback. Braymer recorded a career-high 11 strikeouts, which is also the most strikeouts for any Auburn pitcher this season.
“I’m just so proud of our guys,” said Auburn coach Butch Thompson. “Ben Braymer had 11 strikeouts in five innings. There was never any need to get anyone up in the bullpen. That’s something we want to build on. Hopefully we can build off tonight. Our offense was tremendous against a great SEC pitcher. We were relentless.”
Offensively, multiple Auburn players put up impressive numbers, including Niko Buentello, Melvin Gray and Anfernee Grier. Buentello broke the 9-9 tie in the eighth inning with a solo home run, pushing his home run total to seven on the year, tying Grier. Grier increased the Auburn lead with an RBI triple in the ninth inning. Gray tallied a career-high four hits and tied a career-high 3 runs in the game.
Auburn moves to 15-15 on the season and will take the field again on Friday at 6 p.m. to continue the series against Missouri.
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