After losing the first two of the weekend series, Auburn rallied to a 3-2 victory over Mississippi State, marking its 24th win on the season and putting it back over .500 in conference play.
With the win, the Tigers avoid being swept for the first time this season. They improve to 24-12 and 8-7 in the SEC as they currently sit in third place in the SEC West.
Joseph Gonzalez, just a week removed from his complete game against Vanderbilt, took his usual role as the third starting pitcher. He again worked deep into the game, pitching eight innings and striking out six while only allowing two earned runs.
"It was pretty much the same plan as last week, which was throwing down in the zone and trusting my stuff," Gonzalez said.
The Tigers' offense couldn't replicate Gonzalez's success on the other side of the ball, however. Mississippi State's Cade Smith held the Auburn bats quiet through six innings, allowing only four hits in the process.
That changed in in the seventh inning, when Kason Howell doubled in Blake Rambusch to make it a 2-1 ballgame. Howell was brought in to score later that inning when Cam Hill singled into left-center to tie the game.
Bobby Pierce led off the eighth frame and reached on an error at second base. After Nate LaRue sacrificed Pierce to second, Mississippi State brought southpaw Pico Kohn to the mound.
Seeing the hand change on the mound, head coach Butch Thompson called on grad transfer Brooks Carlson to pinch hit for Ryan Dyal. Carlson delivered, lining the ball to the opposite field for a double that scored Pierce and put the Tigers in the lead.
With the score stagnant into the final frame, Blake Burkhalter was sent in to close the door. The Bulldogs resisted, drawing a leadoff walk and sacrificing the runner to second. Burkhalter struck out the next hitter, bringing Brad Cumbest to the plate.
Cumbest got ahold of Burkhalter's fastball on a 1-0 count, lining it into left field. As the runner rounded third, Bryson Ware scooped it up, took one step and fired a throw to home plate where catcher Nate LaRue put the tag on the runner just in time to end the game.
"I knew he hit it pretty hard and that I had a shot to get him at home, but I had to charge it pretty hard," Ware said. "The grass was slick and it kind of slipped in my fingers, but thankfully I got it low enough to get him in time."
Thompson, a former member of Mississippi State's coaching staff, seemed eager to talk about Ware's heroics.
"We had a couple of chances in the top of the ninth," Thompson said. "Ware struck out, but then he never quit. I've never been prouder of a Mississippi boy coming back and making a throw right there."
Next on the schedule, Auburn has two midweek games, facing Alabama State on Tuesday and Kennesaw State on Wednesday. The Tigers will then host South Carolina in a weekend series. The first pitch for that game is set for Friday, at 6 p.m. CT.
"That was a great way to end a game and a series," Carlson said. "Even though we only got one, that was huge for our confidence to come back with a win on the road in the SEC."
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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.
