Auburn wins the series finale but loses the series against Mississippi State

Auburn baseball entered their weekend series at Mississippi State with a lot of momentum, but a lack of timely hitting, an untimely defensive error, and an uncharacteristic bullpen collapse doomed the Tigers to a 1-2 series loss and questions about the postseason at the halfway mark of SEC play.

Game One at Dudy Noble Field in Starkville was a dramatic loss, 7-6, as Mississippi State scored two in the 7th and then two more in the ninth to walk off the Tigers. Trailing 3-2 into the 6th, Auburn took the lead thanks to three unearned runs off of Mississippi State reliever Brooks Auger, only to give it back in the bottom of the 7th off of two first-pitch home runs by OF Brad Cumbest and INF RJ Yeager. After a Cole Foster solo home run in the 8th staked Auburn to a 6-5 lead, closer Blake Burkhalter, who had pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning, stayed in the game to face the bottom of the Mississippi State order. The leadoff hitter walked, and then Foster had an uncharacteristic error on a tailor-made double-play ball, dropping the ball on the transfer, putting runners on 1st and 2nd with no outs. After a sac bunt moved the runners to 2nd and 3rd, Auburn intentionally walked the next batter to load the bases and put the force in play, only for a wild pitch to allow the tying run to score from 3rd. Auburn again intentionally walked a batter to reinstitute the force, but a nine-pitch walk to 1B Luke Hancock ended the game in walk-off fashion, the third time Mississippi State walked off a team from Alabama this season.

"We've played this game over and over and have found a way, just not tonight," said Auburn head coach Butch Thompson of the uncharacteristic loss. "It wasn't totally clean, but we hung in there. If we had to do it all over again, there's not a lot I'd like to change."

He broke down why the loss was more attributed to bad luck than strategy, “We’ve got Burkhalter in the game with the lead and he’s our first-chair pitcher,” Thompson said. “That’s who we want in the ballgame. We had a walk to start off the ninth and that makes it tough on the road with a one-run lead. Then we get exactly what we wanted, we got a perfect ground ball, but it didn’t happen for us tonight.”

Game two featured Trace Bright versus Mississippi State's Preston Johnson, with Auburn coming short, 9-5. In a game featuring two weather delays, one of ninety minutes to delay the start of the game and another late in the game during a pivotal eighth inning. Bright allowed two early runs in the first and then settled down, holding Mississippi State scoreless in the second through fifth innings with a career-best eight strikeouts. After three straight batters reached with one out in the sixth, Carson Swilling came in for Bright and allowed a second-pitch two-run double but otherwise got Auburn out of the inning without any further damage.

Auburn picked up a solo run in the seventh on a Cole Foster sac fly that scored Bobby Pierce from third, but a three-run homer by LF Brad Cumbest chased Swilling from the game. Freshman Cade Granzow allowed a two-run home run of his own to CF Cameron James, pushing the lead to 9-1. Auburn’s offense stormed back in the 8th against starter Preston Johnson, still in the game in the eighth despite having a pitch count well over 100. Auburn’s first three hitters all reached, scoring the inning's leadoff hitter Mike Bello and finally knocking Johnson from the game. Reliever Drew Talley gave up an RBI single to Sonny DiChiara, Brooks Carlson drew a walk, and Brody Moore hit an RBI single to bring the lead down to five. Mississippi State responded by bringing in their closer, KC Hunt, and other than a Cole Foster RBI single, he collected three strikeouts to end the threat. After a 2nd weather delay of almost an hour for lightning in the area, Hunt got a groundout and a double play to seal the victory.

Thompson was complimentary of both starting pitchers in the game, starting with Mississippi State starting pitcher Preston Johnson, “Preston Johnson was electric, I think he struck out twelve. Our guys have been pretty good, but they were absolutely caught between both pitches. We had bases loaded a couple of times in the ballgame and if you’re ever going to make something out of the ballgame, you’d do it (then) and we just didn’t bust out. Preston Johnson had a lot to do with that in the first seven innings of the ballgame.”

Discussing his Game two starter, Bright, Butch was ultimately pleased with the outing, “It was one of Trace's better outings and he just got outpitched, of course. After his first-inning, I thought he gave us five really good innings and something to build off of. We're sitting here in a new position for us. I think if we had converted one play (last night) we're at the same spot we've been in the last two weeks. Nonetheless, in this league and being on the road three out of four weekends, this is one of those moments tomorrow. The last three weekends we've been good in that third game. We need to get something out of this series and need to come out ready to fight tomorrow”

Auburn did, in fact, come out to fight in game three behind the steady arm of sinkerballer Joseph Gonzalez. The reigning SEC Pitcher of the Week was as good as advertised, throwing eight innings with two runs on seven hits and six strikeouts, with no walks.

"It was pretty much the same plan as last week which was throwing down in the zone and trusting my stuff," Gonzalez said. Other than a pair of solo home runs, Gonzalez kept the ball down, inducing fourteen groundouts against a Mississippi State squad that’s prolific with home runs and fly balls into the gaps. The quality start was the third in the last three weeks for the sophomore from Puerto Rico, who improved to 5-0 on the season with a 2.01 ERA. Offensively, Auburn scored three runs late, two against sophomore reliever Jackson Fristoe in the seventh and another unearned run in the 8th against freshman Pico Kohn, setting up a dramatic ninth inning.

Auburn again called on closer Blake Burkhalter to finish this one, and after a leadoff walk and a sacrifice bunt to move the runner to 2nd, Auburn got a strikeout to set up the final play of the game. With pinch-runner Matt Corder in the game on 2nd, the red-hot Brad Cumbest singled to left and Mississippi State waved the runner. Defensive replacement Bryson Ware fielded the ball on a hop and come up firing, with the ball arriving at home just in time for catcher Nate LaRue to apply the tag to the neck before he could touch the plate. After a review, the call on the field was upheld and Ware recorded his first career walk-off outfield assist. “Coach (Gabe) Gross talks all the time about coming to get the ball hard. I knew he hit it pretty hard and that I had a shot to get him at home, but I had to charge it pretty hard," Ware said. "The grass was slick and it kind of slipped in my fingers, but thankfully I got it low enough to get him in time”. It was the first time Auburn won a game by making the final out at the plate since 2017. Thompson, a native of Aberdeen, MS, was especially pleased with how the game ended. "We had a couple of chances in the top of the ninth," Thompson added. "Ware struck out, but then he never quit. I've never been prouder of a Mississippi boy coming back and making a throw right there."

In a series that had a lot of unfortunate breaks go against the Tigers Thompson was happy to come out of the series with a winning SEC record.

"We overcame a lot." Thompson added, "Salvage is not a word I want to hear. We fought and clawed to get one. Three of the last four weeks we have been on the road in the SEC and this tough team stays above .500 in this tough, tough league at the halfway point." With Alabama somehow winning one of three against Tennessee this weekend, Auburn’s 1-2 weekend keeps them in a tie for 2nd in the SEC West with Texas A&M and Alabama. With upcoming series against Alabama (home), & Arkansas (home), as well as SEC East foes Kentucky (away), Tennessee (away), and South Carolina (home), the playoff picture will become much more clear in the next three weeks. The goal is to avoid a win-or-go-home game in the SEC tournament: only seeds 1-4 get a bye through the single-elimination opening round of the tournament, which begins Tuesday, May 24th.

Before this weekend’s home matchup against South Carolina, currently 4th in the SEC East at 18-17 (6-9) and fresh off of 2-1 series win at home vs Ole Miss, Auburn has double midweek matchups, a Tuesday night against Alabama State and then a makeup date against Kennesaw State on Wednesday. Tuesday’s first pitch is scheduled for 6:00 PM and can be seen streaming on SEC Network+ as well as the radio broadcast with Voice of the Tigers Andy Burcham, alongside Brad Law, can be heard locally on 93.9 FM or online on the Auburn Sports Network. Broadcast information for the makeup game against Kennesaw State is not available at present time but can be heard locally on 93.9 FM or online on the Auburn Sports Network.