After being down 6-0 to South Alabama, the Tigers took home a 13-12 victory against the Jaguars Tuesday. They improved to 15-6 on the season.
With the game being delayed an hour due to rain, the cold and damp field likely contributed to South Alabama’s offense in the first few innings. Mason Barnett got into early trouble on the mound. He allowed three earned on four hits and two free passes. His night ended when the Jaguars popped up a safety squeeze attempt, and Jake Wyandt pulled off a double play to end the inning.
The Tigers’ offense started slow by comparison. Despite drawing four hits in the first three frames, they were unable to draw blood from southpaw Tyler Lehrmann.
“We had our backs against the wall pretty much the whole night,” said Auburn assistant coach Gabe Gross. “I thought they fought. They scrapped and never let go of the rope.”
In the fourth, however, the offense exploded for seven runs. Garrett Farquhar got the scoring started with an RBI single, and the rest of the lineup built on it with four more RBI hits, concluding with a two-run double from Brody Moore.
Auburn pitching coach Tim Hudson stayed busy, with nine different pitchers taking the mound for the Tigers.
Despite the constant supply of fresh arms, the Jaguars were able to tie the game at 12 in the eighth. After Kason Howell lost a fly ball in the wind, Cameron Tissue, who popped into a double play trying to bunt in the first, was able to sac-bunt the runner home.
Blake Burkhalter filled in his usual role as closer, this time going 2.2 IP. In that time, he allowed only one hit and one walk while striking out three.
“We started out kind of sluggish, and I was just looking for my time to come in,” Burkhalter said. “We battled as a team. Coming back there in the eighth inning to get a chance to win the game was really important for us.”
Arizonan Bobby Peirce scored the winning run in the eighth. He legged out a one-out triple to the right-center gap, then scored on the next at-bat when Mike Bello grounded out.
“Bobby Pierce has probably put in more swings in the cage for the amount of at-bats he has had than anyone I’ve ever been around,” Gross said. “My heart just beats really loudly for him tonight because that’s huge for him to come through in a moment where it seems like everything was quiet and dead for us.”
Despite giving a couple free passes, Burkhalter was able to retire the side in the ninth, giving Auburn its 15th victory of the year. Auburn’s six-run comeback was the team’s largest since its seven-run comeback over Florida A&M in 2017.
Auburn will head next to College Station to take on the Texas A&M Aggies. The opener of the three-game SEC series starts Friday, at 6:30 p.m. CT.
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Dylan Fox, Junior in Civil Site Design Engineering, joined The Plainsman as a sports writer in Spring 2020. From Geneva, IL.
