Takeaways from Auburn baseball's game three tie with Southern California

Auburn tied Southern California on Sunday in a WILD game three, 12-12, to win but not sweep the three-game series. (Due to USC's travel accommodations, a full inning could not begin after 3:30, so the game ended in a tie.)

Wild game ends in a tie. #WarEagle pic.twitter.com/4o8tzEWWv9
— Auburn Baseball (@AuburnBaseball) February 26, 2023

Here's what we learned:

Auburn's offense is sustainable

After a close game on Friday and one big inning on Saturday, Auburn's bats absolutely erupted on Sunday for 13 hits and 12 runs in Sunday's travel-shortened game three. Auburn hit three homeruns, a two-run shot by 3B Bryson Ware in the 1st and two by OF Justin Kirby, the second of which was a grand slam in the 5th inning that staked Auburn to a 12-8 lead.

This offense feels sustainable - both Saturday and Sunday, many of Auburn's hits were singles or doubles hit consecutively, working "station to station" and moving runners over as needed. Auburn struck out nine times on Sunday, but the approaches were good.

Said true freshman DH Ike Irish on Saturday, "I thought we didn't really have the quality of at-bats to start the game and then, as time moved on, you saw the at-bats get longer. People started barreling balls with two strikes, and you saw guys use the other way, which was huge."

On Sunday, Auburn's hitters started catching barrels early. After Chase Isbell, Sunday's starter after having strep throat all week, gave up four runs in the 1st and was lifted early, the offense struck right back with a two-run homerun in the first by Bryson Ware and a three-run homerun by Justin Kirby in the 2nd.

For the contest, four Tigers had multiple hits and seven of the nine starters had a hit (while both of the other two got on base, with one of them scoring).

Don't let Auburn's inability to hit a deep sacrifice fly in the 9th distract you from the fact that this offense absolutely stepped up and responded time after time in this game.

Justin Kirby continues to be a problem

One of the reasons that Auburn went after the Kent State grad transfer was for his power, and the righty's delivered. Kirby has only five hits on the season, but they're all homeruns. Every single one.

Kirby hit three homeruns on the weekend, including two in Sunday's game three. The final homerun was a grand slam in the 5th that gave Auburn a 12-8 lead.

His 2nd of the game, in GRAND fashion! pic.twitter.com/aQlzTke6CP
— Auburn Baseball (@AuburnBaseball) February 26, 2023

The batting average may not be there, but if every hit is a homerun, 30 hits in a season would make you 1st-Team All-SEC, probably.

Auburn's pitching is...not quite there yet

Going into today, we knew the pitching would be a lot of younger arms as they continue their acclimation to the college game. And yet, the result was still surprising.

15 hits, 12 runs allowed to USC, with four walks to six strikeouts. Head coach Butch Thompson did not mince words after the game. "We drug ourselves through the mud. We have to get more experience and we have to get better. [...] It's a grind, and we embrace it. We'll keep going back to the drawing board and keep trying to grow."

"You could probably do better if you could capture your breath, your heart rate, and get that to a (good) point. Hopefully we got closer today."

Despite the outward appearance, there were bright spots to Thompson. He specifically mentioned the back pick by LaRue - with two outs in the 4th inning, LaRue caught the runner at 1st too far off the bag and threw behind him to 1B Cooper McMurray, who applied the tag to end the inning. He mentioned true freshman pitcher Zach Crotchfelt, as well, "Crotchfelt pitched well for a second straight week. Just have to keep getting him extended," as well as RHP Parker Carlson coming in the top of the 9th and getting the final out of the inning so that Auburn had an opportunity to walk it off.

Sunday baseball is sometimes...weird

It's a shame this game wasn't televised, because some of what happened isn't to be believed without seeing it.

For instance, USC got a runner in scoring position in the 9th and he scored on a double down the left field line to give USC the lead.

Except, he didn't.

USC leftfielder Carson Wells stepped OVER home plate when running home - SS Cole Foster had cut off the throw to keep the hitter from advancing to 2nd, and after the dugout and fans started yelling at catcher Nate LaRue, threw the ball in to home, where LaRue stepped on home plate and the runner was called out.

And then, pitcher Parker Carlson got USC infielder Ryan Jackson to swing and miss for a strikeout and the third out of the inning...except the ball went into the dirt, and LaRue inexplicably threw to 2nd instead of 1st, and the ball sailed into centerfield, advancing runners to the corners.

It was a sloppy game, with four combined errors, four more wild pitches, and twelve combined walks.

Bobby Peirce leaves with injury

Peirce, the starting left fielder who missed multiple years at Auburn due to surgeries on both of his knees, was lifted from the game in the 2nd inning when he came up lame after beating out an infield grounder, being replaced by Mike Bello.

He didn't want to leave the game, and was only briefly in the tunnel before returning to the dugout for the remainder of the contest, so it appears to be precautionary. He was slow to get up on Saturday after narrowly missing a diving catch in left-center, as well.

Back in action

Auburn continues the non-conference slate on Wednesday night with a matchup against Florida A&M. First pitch is at 6PM, and will be broadcast on SEC Network+. The radio call, with Brad Law, is available on AuburnTigers.com, the Auburn Athletics app, and locally on 95.9 FM.