AUBURN | Christian Herberholz gave Auburn five shutout innings. Five Tiger relievers gave Mississippi State 11 runs over the final four innings.
And Auburn somehow came up one hit short of a dramatic comeback.
The Bulldogs hung on for an 11-10 win over Auburn Saturday afternoon at Plainsman Park to even the series. AU falls to 22-16-1 overall and 6-11 in the SEC.
“When it’s 6-2, that game’s not over. You have four more frames, you’re at home, this is SEC baseball. But we just kept leaking out. They’re tired of hearing it but I’m tired of seeing it,” said AU coach Butch Thompson.
“What was almost a different script by a group of guys that’s done an amazing job of hanging in there, wound up leaking it out to 11-3. To get that back and to get 90 feet away, it was just not in the cards.”
Trailing 11-3 in the ninth, Kason Howell led off with a solo home run over the right field wall, his fourth of the season.
Cole Foster hit an RBI single, Bobby Peirce an RBI double, Ike Irish an RBI single and Howell a bases-loaded triple to cut the lead to one run.
Pinch-hitter Ryan Dyal, who just missed a double down the right field line two pitches earlier, took strike three over the outside of the plate to end the game.
Tanner Bauman allowed two runs in 0.1 innings. He took over for Herberholz to start the sixth, walking a batter with one out, throwing and wild pitch and then walking another.
John Armstrong (6-2) took the loss. He hit the first batter he faced before giving up a sacrifice fly and then a three-run home run. Chase Isbell finished the inning by giving up a single, two-run home run and finally a fly out as MSU turned a 2-0 deficit into a 6-2 lead.
Drew Nelson allowed two runs in 1.0 inning and Chase Allsup three runs in 2.0 innings.
Herberholz allowed just three hits and a walk with four strikeouts on 78 pitches.
“Herberholz, that’s a really good line for him. Five innings strong. We’ve been begging for that and got it,” said Thompson.
Copper McMurray hit a two-run home run in the second, his eighth of the season and second in as many days. Foster added an RBI single in the seventh.
Howell was 3 of 5 with four RBI, Foster 2 of 5 with two RBI and Chris Stanfield 2 of 5.
The series concludes Sunday at 1 p.m. CT on SECN+/ESPN+.
