Auburn baseball stormed back from a seven-run deficit to capture a series victory against Mississippi State 12-11 with a walk-off hit from Cole Foster.
The Bulldogs took the early lead scoring seven runs in the first three innings, with start Zach Crotchfelt being pulled in the second inning for Will Cannon after being evaluated by the medical trainers for a back-related injury.
The Tigers didn’t go down easily as after a scoreless top half of the fourth inning, Cooper McMurray hit his first home run of the day off the right field foul pole, bringing in three runs.
After allowing two runners to reach base, Cannon’s day ended in the fifth inning with one out remaining; this led the way for Konner Copeland to take over the mound, where he stayed for the duration of the contest.
Two consecutive passed balls allowed the baserunners to score in the fifth, giving Mississippi State a 9-3 lead.
Despite not traveling to Tuscaloosa last weekend weekend, Copeland stayed sharp and prevented any earned runs from coming across in the winning effort.
“It was mostly just a mental thing. I just had this weekend off. I didn’t travel, so I tried to get better every day,” Copeland said. “Kept working on my mind and my craft, and it worked out today.”
Copeland finished the game with 4.1 innings pitched, zero earned runs, zero walks and two strikeouts to receive his second win of the season.
With efficient pitching on the mound, the offense provided heavy run support as they scored four runs in the sixth inning from McMurray’s second home run of the day and Nate LaRue’s first of the season.
“The first couple of innings were rough. We were trying to feel him out and get his pitches down,” McMurray said. “Fortunately, we were able to. Whenever we think we have the momentum, our offense can strike for any amount of runs at any time.”
McMurray provided the offense with the means to come back as he finished the day with two home runs, hitting the left and right foul poles for five RBIs. He has hit a home run in four consecutive games.
After trading blows and two more unearned runs from Mississippi State late in the game, Auburn had a chance to walk it off, going into the bottom of the ninth inning, tied up 11-11.
LaRue led off the bottom half of the inning, getting hit by a pitch, the fourth Tiger to be hit in the contest.
Stanfield bunted LaRue over to second, where Josh Hall pinch-ran for him.
With the game on the line, Foster roped a ball into the center field gap, driving in the game-winning run from second base.
“It was a huge relief. At first, I was thinking don’t get caught, and then I knew it was definitely getting down,” Foster said. “After a bad day of struggling, I just think coming back and being short and simple as possible to give the team a chance to win was all we needed to do.”
Auburn snapped its SEC series losing streak as the Tigers had failed to win a series in their past three. The Tigers improve to 23-16-1 and 7-11 in SEC play.
Auburn faces Troy at home Tuesday, April 25, at 6 p.m. CST on SEC Network+ with another SEC series in Columbia, South Carolina, beginning Friday, April 28.
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Craig Noyes is a junior from Kensington, Maryland, majoring in journalism. He joined The Plainsman in January 2023.
Twitter: @craignoyes58
