Auburn baseball surrendered a 7-0 lead to the No. 8 Kentucky Wildcats, losing 13-8 and dropping its sixth game in a row on Saturday, April 13 at Plainsman Park.
It is the second time the Tigers have been swept in a weekend series this season, and it moves their conference record to 2-13.
Kentucky made its comeback in the middle innings of the game beginning in the top of the fifth inning, right after Auburn made its call to the bullpen and brought in RHP John Armstrong.
With a runner on first base, Nolan McCarthy singled up the middle to put two runners on with no outs. That set James McCoy up to launch a three-run home run over the center field wall to put the Wildcats on the board, cutting what was once a seven-run deficit to four.
The Wildcats set themselves up for a six-run top of the sixth that put them on the leading end of things, and Kentucky never looked back.
Tanner Bauman started the game on the mound for the Tigers and put in the work that his team desperately needed. The left-handed pitcher got through the first two innings of the game with only 19 pitches thrown, sitting down the Wildcats in order.
Auburn used that momentum to put itself on the scoreboard in the bottom of the second.
Cade Belyeu earned the first hit of the game when he led the bottom frame off with a solo home run over the right center wall to put the Tigers up 1-0.
Deric Fabian came up later in the inning and put a single into left field, allowing Eric Guevara to hit a double and Cale Stricklin to draw a walk, loading up the bases with just one out.
Cooper Weiss capitalized off of the Tigers' loaded bases and hit a sacrifice fly deep enough to right field to score Fabian. Just like that, Auburn had a two-run advantage.
After Bauman sat Kentucky down in order in the third, the Tigers found an opportunity to blow the game wide open.
Bobby Peirce led the inning off with a walk and stole second on the at-bat that followed. Wildcat pitcher Mason Moore then struggled mightily, surrendering two more walks to Christian Hall and Belyeu, loading the bases once again.
Stanfield flew out to left field right after, bringing home Peirce to make it 3-0.
After Fabian singled to load the bases back up, a pitching change was made, and Guevara bounced a ball up the middle where Kentucky made a fielding error and allowed another run to come in. Stricklin was then hit by a pitch to bring in Belyeu and push the score to 5-0.
Auburn’s scoring run did not stop there. Following the hit batsman, Weiss hit an RBI sacrifice fly to left center, which eventually led to a Cooper McMurray RBI single into right field. The game was all in favor of the Tigers at 7-0 in the bottom of the third.
The Wildcats earned their first hit of the ball game in the top of the fourth when Ryan Waldschmidt stroked a single into center field. He did not last on base long, however, as he was caught trying to steal second in the following at-bat.
Kentucky eventually got runners on the corners with two outs, but a Mitchell Daly strikeout ended the threat and kept the Tigers with a firm lead.
The fifth inning is where the game turned in a big way when Auburn made the decision to take Bauman out after 4.0 innings of work and bring John Armstrong in.
Armstrong never found a groove, which eventually gave way for McCoy to hit the three-run home run to center field that got the Wildcats back in the contest.
The junior right-handed pitcher eventually got out of the inning, but the party was only just beginning for Kentucky.
Ryan Nicholson began the top of the sixth with a solo home run off the scoreboard in center field, which took Armstrong out of the game and brought Cam Tilly into a 7-4 game.
Heading into the contest, Auburn coach Butch Thompson knew that he wanted to have Armstrong in after Bauman.
“That’s exactly how we wanted it set up,” Thompson said. “Bauman, it’s been a tough first half for him and he absolutely did an amazing job… Just on and off the field, that’s been one thing this first half, it feels like our defense has been on the field two-thirds of the time.”
Tilly did not have much luck either. McCarthy welcomed him to the game with a bouncing single up the middle, which set McCoy up to draw a walk.
After Waldschmidt drew a walk to load the bases, Auburn eventually got its second out. Devin Burkes hit a bases-clearing double off of the center field wall, tying the game up at 7-7 and completing the comeback.
Tilly exited the game after that, and the Tigers brought in Griffin Graves. The freshman was greeted by a Kentucky home run off the bat of Nick Lopez on Graves' first pitch, bringing in Burkes and giving the Wildcats a 9-7 lead.
“Our whole challenge this first half is not being able to do enough required on the mound to be acceptable or good enough,” Thompson said. “We gave up five or six runs today with an open base, and it’s not what you throw, it’s where you throw it. Until we know the open base, until we can start executing those pitches, they’re going to keep teeing off on us.”
Auburn found a chance to get momentum back on its side, attempting to take back the lead. In the bottom of the sixth, the Tigers got the bases loaded with two outs off of two walks and a hit batsman. The hope of scoring a run ended quickly with a Fabian strikeout.
Guevara led things off in the bottom of the seventh with a single into left, but more hope of starting something vanished when Ike Irish came up and hit into a double play.
In the top of the eighth, Kentucky's Waldschmidt got things started with a walk before Emilien Pitre sent a single into right field to put two runners on with one out.
Lopez took advantage and hit his second home run of the day—a three-run shot to right field.
Auburn found a dash of hope in the bottom of the eighth with the bases loaded, but two straight pop-ups ended any chances the Tigers had.
Guevara hit a home run in the bottom of the ninth to finish off his great day at the plate, but the game was all but over and it eventually ended at 13-8.
Overall, Auburn picked up just two hits after the third inning, both coming from Guevara with his single and solo homer. He finished the day 3-for-5 with two RBIs and two runs scored.
Cam Tilly picked up the loss for Auburn, going in for just 0.2 innings of work. He gave up four runs on two hits and walked two. He drops to 3-1 on the season.
Robert Hogan earned the win for the Wildcats with his 3.0 innings on the mound. He gave up no runs and one hit, while striking out and walking two batters each.
The Tigers have not won an SEC series this season and drop to 18-17 with the loss. Kentucky improves to 30-5 for the year and 14-1 in conference play with the victory.
Auburn will have a chance to get back in the win column with a home game against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on Tuesday, April 16. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. CST and will be broadcast on the SEC Network.
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Tyler Raley is a junior from Birmingham, Alabama, majoring in journalism.
Twitter: @traley34
