OMAHA | Auburn’s magical run to the College World Series came to an end Wednesday.
In a game that started Tuesday and ended Wednesday following a 20:11 rain delay, Louisville took advantage of some early Auburn miscues to secure a 5-3 win in an elimination game at TD Ameritrade Park.
Auburn’s season ends at 38-28 while the Cardinals advance in the loser’s bracket to play either Vanderbilt or Mississippi State.
"I love how we come back out," Auburn coach Butch Thompson said. "I thought we competed. It was tough to score runs. I think Louisville’s got something to do with that. We had trouble getting a leadoff guy on today, and even like in the eighth inning, we wound up getting a double play, and so we had two outs and nobody on and we get three consecutive hits. That was a moment. Conor Davis coming back today and, you know, he had two doubles and a home run — just great at-bats.
"It just didn’t happen today but the guys fought to get the tying run back on the plate."
The game resumed Wednesday morning with Louisville leading 4-1. The Tigers cut it to 4-2 in the seventh as Ryan Bliss reached on a two-out single and scored on a double by Conor Davis.
Richard Fitts came on to throw 3.0 scoreless innings before giving up a run in the eighth. Ryan Watson held UL without a hit over the final 1.2 innings.
Auburn was able to load the bases with two outs in the eighth on back-to-back-to-back singles but UL closer Michael Avene struck out Judd Ward to end the threat.
Davis belted a one-out solo home run over the right-centerfield wall in the ninth to get the Tigers within two runs, and Steven Williams hit a two-out double, but Michael Kirian struck out Rankin Woley to end the game and earn his fifth save of the season.
"That’s been the story of us all year," Davis said. "People have counted us out, we’ve been behind to open the ninth inning and battled back, in the eighth inning we’ve battled back. It just shows this is what we’ve been doing all year. We’ve been behind, we’ve had ups and downs.
"It’s a tough pill to swallow that we didn’t get where we wanted to go here, but at the same time we made history by being the first team to in 22 years to get here. It’s very exciting for our program and where it’s going with Coach Thompson."
Louisville built a 4-1 lead before the delay scoring a run in the first on a solo home run by Tyler Fitzgerald off AU starter Bailey Horn. The Cards struck for three more in the third on a single, three walks and two costly errors by Ryan Bliss that allowed two unearned runs.
Horn (4-2) took the loss allowing four runs, two earned, on three hits and three walks in 3.1 innings. He struck out three on 65 pitches.
Auburn scored a run in the second on an RBI groundout by Kason Howell that scored Edouard Julien from third.
The Tigers had a couple of chances to score early. With runners on first and third in the first, Williams hit a hard liner up the middle, which bounced off UL starter Bobby Miller, who picked it up and threw Williams out at first.
With Will Holland at second base and two outs in the third, Williams drove a line drive to right field, but Drew Campbell fielded it cleanly and threw Holland out at home to end the inning.
Davis was 3 of 5 with his eighth home run of the season and two RBI. Bliss, Williams, Julien and Matt Scheffler had two hits apiece.
