Auburn fell in the ninth inning to Mississippi State Saturday afternoon 5-4 as its attempts to regain the lead came up just short in a back-and-forth contest full of miscues.
The Bulldogs struck first in the second inning as a pair of singles brought them an early 1-0 lead. That lead did not last very long due to a Rose Roach single which drove in two runs for Auburn with the help of a fielding error.
After both teams traded blows for the next few innings, Auburn held a late 4-3 lead at the end of the fifth inning.
A series of baserunners in the sixth inning and miscues on bunt coverage gave the Bulldogs the bases loaded with no outs, ending Shelby Lowe’s day on the mound. Annabelle Widra came in, where she remained for the rest of the game.
More miscues plagued Auburn as a line drive bounced out of third baseman Denver Bryant's glove, which gave way for the tying run to come home.
“It’s all about defense,” said head coach Mickey Dean. “I will go to my grave saying it. It is all about defense. Hitting will come and go. That is just the nature of the game.”
Despite the bases loaded, Widra limited the damage, and the Bulldogs were held to one run to even out the score headed to the bottom of the sixth.
After both teams failed to reach base in the seventh inning, this trend continued into extra innings as no batter managed to get on base until the bottom of the eighth inning.
Mississippi State placed the lead runner on base in the top of the ninth inning, followed by a fielding error, the game’s fifth combined error.
After a sacrifice bunt put the runners on second and third base, a single up the middle scored the go-ahead run from third base and gave the Bulldogs a lead they did not relinquish.
Auburn tried to bring in a run in the ninth inning as it managed to put runners on the corners down to its final out, but a line drive flyout from Lindsey Garcia shut the door on the potential comeback.
Although the Tigers managed four runs with five hits, they only scored one earned run due to the four errors committed by Mississippi State.
“Everybody always wants to talk about hitting but hitting comes and goes,” Dean said. “You see that throughout the entire country. The one thing that has to be constant and consistent is defense.”
Auburn dropped to 38-16 and 14-9 in SEC play as it looks to take its fourth-consecutive SEC series heading into the conference tournament.
The final home game of the season will be held Sunday at 11 a.m. CST and televised on the SEC Network.
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Craig Noyes is a junior from Kensington, Maryland, majoring in journalism. He joined The Plainsman in January 2023.
Twitter: @craignoyes58
