Auburn drops doubleheader at Mississippi State, suffers second straight SEC sweep

Courtesy of Auburn Athletics

STARKVILLE, Miss. – Auburn dropped both games of Sunday’s doubleheader at Dudy Noble Field by a combined three runs, losing game one 3-1 before falling in extra innings in game two 4-3.

Auburn (19-20, 2-16 SEC) put the tying runs in scoring position in the seventh in game one but left the bases loaded to end the game, and Mississippi State (26-14, 10-8 SEC) scored two runs in the seventh before winning in walk-off fashion in the eighth in game two.

The games marked the Tigers’ sixth and seventh losses by one or two runs in Southeastern Conference play.

“We have, time-and-time again in these games, gotten exactly where we wanted to with our personnel, so we’ll keep trying some different stuff,” head coach Butch Thompson said. “Offensively, we’re in a tough spot with Bobby (Peirce) and some of these guys. That’s been tough, but I thought we were going to find a way to win a ballgame with only two hits there in the last because (Carson) Myers did an amazing job for us, but it wasn’t meant to be.”

GAME ONE

Mississippi State threatened with back-to-back singles to start the second inning, but Tanner Bauman and the Auburn defense buckled down to hold the Bulldogs scoreless. The senior lefthander struck out the eight-hole hitter on four pitches before Javon Hernandez made a stellar bank-handed play on a grounder up the middle, popped to his feet and threw a strike to first to strand the pair.

Connor Hujsak started the fourth with his second single of the game and came around to score on a one-out single, diving into home just ahead of a strong throw from Cade Belyeu in left field. The Bulldogs then doubled their lead with an unearned run later in the inning. Pitching in relief of Bauman, John Armstrong got a ground ball that would’ve gotten the Tigers out of the inning, but the throw sailed wide of first and allowed the runners on first and second to advance two bases. 

Auburn answered with a solo homer from Kaleb Freeman to start the top of the fifth, cutting the deficit in half. The long ball, which left Freeman’s bat at 107 miles per hour and traveled 432 feet, was the junior’s first hit of the season.

Mississippi State got the run back an inning later as a two-out walk was followed by back-to-back singles to extend the lead to 3-1.

Trailing by two and down to its last three outs, Auburn started a ninth-inning rally with a two-out walk followed by back-to-back singles from Carter Wright and Cooper Weiss. However, with the tying run in scoring position, a flyout to right field ended the game.

GAME TWO

Mississippi State scored first for the second straight game, taking a 1-0 lead on back-to-back two-out singles with a wild pitch in between them in the second inning.

After Carson Myers faced the minimum thanks to Wright catching a runner stealing to end the third, Auburn scored three runs in the fourth to take the lead. A bases-loaded walk to Irish tied the game at one, and a pair of RBI fielder’s choices from Wright and Eric Guevara gave the Tigers the lead and extended it to 3-1.

Myers set down the middle of the Mississippi State lineup in order in the bottom of the inning and retired eight straight from the fourth into the sixth inning. The Bulldogs put the tying run aboard on a walk and infield single in the bottom of the sixth, but Myers got cleanup hitter Hunter Hines to flyout to the warning track in right field to end the inning.

The junior left hander ultimately matched a season high with 6.0 innings pitched. He allowed one run on four hits with one walk and five strikeouts and threw a season-high 89 pitches.

The Tigers went to the bullpen to start the seventh, and Mississippi State took advantage, tying the game on two singles followed by a two-RBI double from Logan Kohler. However, pinch runner Aaron Down was picked off second, and Parker Carlson retired both batters he faced to send the game to extras.

Auburn went down in order in the eighth, and the Bulldogs started the bottom of the inning with a leadoff double before the runner moved to third on a wild pitch. The Tigers got within an out of getting out of the inning unscathed, but a line drive off the glove of a diving attempt from Deric Fabian at third base found its way into left field to score the winning run.

Auburn returns to Plainsman Park for a midweek game against Florida A&M (20-18) Tuesday at 3 p.m. CT before hitting the road for a series at LSU (24-16, 4-13 SEC) next weekend.