Tigers improve to 17-1 with comeback win
AUBURN | It was a rare pinch-hit appearance for Luke Jarvis and the senior took full advantage.
Jarvis drove the first pitch he saw to left field for a single to bring home Edouard Julien in the bottom of the eighth inning and give No. 13 Auburn a 5-4 come-from-behind win over Memphis Wednesday afternoon at Plainsman Park.
It’s the Tigers sixth win of the season when trailing or tied in the eight inning as they improve to 17-1 on the season, matching the 1997 team for the best start in school history.
“I mainly just wanted to see a pitch I could handle and not try to do too much with it,” said Jarvis, who is the regular starter at second base. “It’s crazy. We’ll be down, we were down 4-1 in the seventh and it was like, ‘Yea, we’re going to win this game.’ It’s like that feeling of no pressure. It allows guys to go up there and have at-bats and not let the moment get too big. That’s huge going into SEC play."
Julien led off the eighth with a single, moved to second on a groundout by Jay Estes and then stole third.
“A couple of at-bats that stick out to me is Jay Estes on a hit-and-run late in the ballgame. That ball isn’t even close to the strike zone and his barrel finding ball I thought was huge,” Auburn coach Butch Thompson said.
“Luke Jarvis had been sitting over there for eight innings and then steps up to the plate and one pitch gets the game-winning hit. That’s some good at-bats.”
Auburn used four pitchers. Ryan Watson started and allowed three runs on four hits in 3.1 innings. Blake Schilleci held Memphis to one hit in 1.2 innings, Corey Herndon one unearned run on three hits in 2.0 innings and Welby Malczewski closed out the game with 2.0 hitless innings.
“I gave the (game ball) to two pitchers — Corey Herndon and Welby Malczewski today and the reason being is we made a pretty big deal about the 10 walks last night and it’s amazing, those guys come back and pitch in the ballgame,” Thompson said. “A couple of guys that threw last night coming back to throw the night and Welby being one of those that wound up finishing the ballgame is pretty fitting.”
Malczewski, a junior, struck out four and issued just one walk to earn his first career win.
“It’s big but it’s a team game at the end of the night and I’m just happy to have the opportunity I had and that the team won,” Malczewski said.
Memphis led 4-1 before Auburn struck for three runs in the seventh on two hits, two walks, two wild pitches, two balks and an error. Jay Estes scored on a wild pitch, Brett Wright scored on a balk and Brendan Venter drove home one with a double to left center.
Julien was 2-for-4 with a run scored and Jeremy Johnson 1-for-3, driving home a run in the second on an infield single.
Auburn hosts No. 6 Texas A&M this weekend in the conference opener. First pitch Friday is scheduled for 7 p.m. CT on SEC Network. Saturday’s game will be 2 p.m. on SECN+ and WatchESPN and Sunday’s 1 p.m. on SECN+ and WatchESPN.