Auburn wins its second SEC road series of the season by taking down Kentucky in an 11-inning nail bitter. The main hero of the game Ike Irish capped of a five-hit day with two homers and a go-ahead bomb in the final inning to reclaim the lead for the Tigers. Irish’s extraordinary day was not only the first five hit game of his career but the first for the Tigers in SEC play since 2011.
“I’ve been looking for that swing all year, and it was able to come up in the big moment,” Irish said of his go-ahead homer.
Outside of the outstanding play from Irish the Tigers seemed to have the game won in multiple instances before sealing the deal in extras. This included Auburn taking a four run lead into the bottom of the ninth. In the bottom of this inning left fielder Bub Terrell appearing to make a diving catch for the third out to win the game but instead it was overturned with replay review saying that he only trapped the ball.
“That’s the biggest thing we have going for us right now,” head coach Butch Thompson said of his team’s resiliency. “We’re playing good baseball, but we’re not playing elite baseball, and we know we want to grow into it. This series on the road, you have to absolutely beat somebody and finish them off. You could get a call, all of the excuses just put them to the side. The resilience gave us a second chance to win this ballgame, and we took full advantage of it.”
Other contributors on offense included Center Fielder Cade Belyeu who had two hits consisting of a triple and a double as well as two runs scored. Shortstop Deric Fabian had a hit, and a sacrifice fly that batted in two runs. In addition, Cooper McMurray, Bub Terrell, Chase Fralick, Lucas Steele, and Chris Rembert had hits of their own getting the team total on the day to an impressive 14 hits.
The pitching staff also played a huge role with starter Cade Fisher giving the Tigers four innings of one run ball followed by freshman Andreas Alvarez shoving for three more innings on the mound giving up only two runs keeping the game manageable. Even though the staff had a solid first seven innings the real heroics game in the bottom of the 10th inning where the Tigers faced a tied game with the bases loaded and only one out. Jackson Sanders specialized and got the second out while Parker Carlson came in and not only shut the door in the tenth but also got a perfect one two three inning in the 11th to seal the win.
“We had a bunch of guys throw the ball really well today,” Carlson said. “I just wanted to pick the team up. We play so hard every day. You can’t help but have a little adrenaline rush and want to win so bad when these guys are behind you.”
After having clinched the series the Tigers look to get the series sweep on the road against the Wildcats tomorrow with freshman Christian Chatterton slated to start at 1pm CST.
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Reid is a freshman, exploratory major. He joined the Plainsman in the fall of 2024.
You can follow him on X (Twitter) at @ReidFarris2
