Auburn suffered an 11-9 loss against Boston College in extra innings on Sunday afternoon.
The lack of pitching depth was the biggest issue for the Tigers. With several of the top pitchers out to injury, Auburn was 2 well-pitched innings short of victory.
"The pitching is such a big piece," said head coach Butch Thompson. "That's where most of your scholarships are. That's where games are won and lost. The ability to pitch and finish would have capped off what was a pretty solid ball game we played there until right there at the end. Because it's not like we kicked the ball to give it away. They absolutely hit the ball."
The Tigers started out strong on the mound as Trace Bright pitched five innings and only allowed one run.
“Trace Bright gave us a third competitive start in a row," Thompson said. "That was tremendous really. [He] changed speed against a really offensive ball club which we eventually figured out once again before they got out of town through the change-up."
Boston College jumped out first with a run in the second inning, but Auburn answered in the bottom half of the inning with two runs to take the lead.
In the fourth inning, the Tigers broke through with five runs and followed that up with one run in the sixth and one run in the seventh. Auburn looked to clinch a second weekend series in a row up 9-1 in the ninth inning and with Boston College having two outs.
The Eagles had other plans as Boston College scored eight runs to tie the game.
Auburn was unable to answer in the bottom of the ninth, and the game went into extra innings. In the 10th inning, Boston College's Luke Gold hit a two-run homer off Peyton Glavine as the Eagles walked away with the victory.
“We almost snatched defeat from the jaws of victory today,” Thompson said.
Every batter in Auburn’s starting lineup had at least one hit in the game. Brody Moore was 3-for-4 with 2 RBI, Cam Hill was 2-for-4 with a home run and 3 RBI, while Ryan Bliss was 2-for-5 with 2 RBI.
Auburn will be back in action on Tuesday when they travel to take on in-state opponent UAB on Tuesday. The first pitch is set for 6 p.m. CST.
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Kristen is a sophomore majoring in journalism with a minor in business. She is also the host of our sports podcast, Page 8, that can be found on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and SoundCloud.
Twitter: @kristencarrau
