Auburn claimed its second consecutive conference series with a 12-11 win over the Alabama Crimson Tide in game two of the series on Friday night.
A pair of big innings in the fourth and fifth, where the Tigers scored six runs in each, gave them just enough to seal the deal in the end.
The Tiger’s were one pitch–and mere inches–away from putting the Crimson Tide away in seven innings, but an error from Cooper Weiss and a double from William Hamiter kept Alabama’s hopes alive and sparked what would be nine unanswered runs from Alabama.
“You could feel they got some momentum,” said associate head coach Karl Nonemaker. “We knew it would take a lot to beat them.”
Trailing by two runs after the first three frames, the Tiger’s broke loose in the bottom half of the fourth inning, recording three doubles and two triples and scoring six runs. Cade Belyeu tripled to right field to lead things off and scored on a Caden Green groundout. Deric Fabian doubled and swapped places with Chris Stanfield who doubled down the line in left field.
Carter Wright hit a line drive to left center and scored Ike Irish and Stanfield. Weiss cleared the bases of Tiger runners with a triple to right field to extend the lead to four.
Another six run inning that featured two home runs from Cooper McMurray and Belyeu gave Auburn a 10 run lead and hopes of a run-rule victory.
“We had a pretty good cushion,” Belyeu said. “We ended up finding barrels and putting the ball in play. It paid off in the end.”
But the Tide came rolling with two outs in the seventh inning, scoring two runs on the Hamiter double. Kade Snell added two more with a home run over the wall in left center field, cutting the Tigers’ lead in half.
The bleeding didn’t stop there for the Tigers as Alabama scored four more in the eighth inning, taking advantage of a struggling Tiger bullpen and capitalizing on three batters that were hit by a pitch and two wild pitches.
The Crimson Tide scored one more in the top of the ninth on a Hamiter single that drove in Gage Miller, but it was not enough as Hayden Murphy ended the game with a strikeout to secure the win.
Chase Allsup earned the win going 6.2 innings while giving up five runs on seven hits. Murphy recorded the save with two strikeouts on two hits.
“It was very special,” Murphy said. “Chase Allsup was electric. I just wanted to replicate that. Getting out of that inning with a win is very big for this team. This is a big series for us.”
With the win, Auburn improves to 27-25 overall (8-21 SEC).
The Tiger’s season will conclude on Saturday as they go for a sweep in game three beginning at 5 p.m. CST with television coverage on SEC Network.
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Logan Fowler is a junior from Sumiton, Alabama, majoring in journalism. He joined The Plainsman in Spring 2024.
