No. 15 Auburn dropped its fifth straight SEC game at Arkansas Sunday afternoon in Fayetteville, as the Razorbacks completed the sweep with a 5-4 win in the bottom of the ninth inning.
“Our guys gave us everything they absolutely had,” Auburn coach Butch Thompson said. “It’s on me that I haven’t got them in a position to get over the hump because I thought every one of our guys battled.”
The Tigers failed to hold the lead down the stretch despite a strong outing from true freshman Tanner Burns, in which he struck out seven and allowed only one run on four hits in six innings pitched.
“Tanner Burns was masterful, I thought, against a great lineup,” Thompson said. “I hope that gives him so much confidence.”
Auburn jumped out to an early lead on Arkansas starter Isaiah Campbell after RBI doubles from Edouard Julien and Josh Anthony in the second inning. Jay Estes followed with what was ruled as an RBI single in the third inning to give the Tigers a 4-0 lead.
Estes hit a homerun over the left-field wall but passed Brett Wright on the base path after confusion on if the ball had been caught, causing Estes to be ruled out and leaving Auburn with a missed opportunity and only one run on the play.
“Even from the dugout it looked like the ball had been caught,” Thompson said. “The umpire didn’t know what to call. I think when that happened Brett thought the ball was caught and he came back and Estes had passed him. It’s a good thing we got credit for one runs and not zero runs, but we should have had two. It was an extremely late call and I think as a base runner you’re not sure what to do.”
Matters only got worse from there for the Tigers.
Auburn failed to register a hit the rest of the game. Arkansas pitcher Jake Reindl struck out nine and allowed only one hit in seven innings of relief to earn the win. Reindl retired the last 18 batters he faced.
Mistakes in the field cost Auburn, as the Razorbacks began to rally in the fourth inning. Arkansas scored two runs after back-to-back doubles and a throwing error by Anthony with two outs in the inning.
A throwing error by Luke Jarvis and a wild pitch by Calvin Coker in the seventh inning gave Arkansas two more runs to tie the game.
With the game knotted up at 4-4 in the bottom of the ninth inning, Heston Kjerstad lined a two-out RBI single up the middle off of Cody Greenhill to end the game.
Greenhill took the loss after walking the leadoff hitter to begin the ninth, who was bunted over to second base and then scored on the Kjerstad single.
Auburn falls to 23-10 overall on the season and 4-8 in conference play, while Arkansas improves to 24-9 and 8-4 in the SEC.
Auburn plays at Samford Tuesday night at 6 p.m. CT on the SoCON Network.
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