HOOVER | Tanner Burns couldn’t make it out of the second inning of a 10-3 loss at Ole Miss 11 days ago. He didn’t leave Wednesday’s game against the Rebels until the eighth.
The freshman right-hander allowed just one earned run in 7.0 innings and freshman Edouard Julien hit a grand slam as No. 7 seed Auburn beat No. 2 seed Ole Miss 9-3 in the second round of the 2018 SEC Tournament at the Hoover Met.
“I thought it was a great bounce-back for Tanner Burns,” Auburn coach Butch Thompson said. “For him to come back and pitch the way he did, I respect that. That’s the first thing that Coach (Mike) Bianco said to me and I couldn’t agree more. That was huge.
“Edouard’s last swing at the bat was the culmination of our guys just hanging in there. A great ballgame. We’ve had two opportunities on two great teams that we’ve lost the series to, to get the opportunity to play them here at the tournament and we’ve made the most of it so far.”
The Tigers, which beat Kentucky 4-3 Tuesday, are 2-0 in the tournament for the first time since 1999. Auburn will play No. 11 seed Texas A&M Thursday at 4:30 p.m. CT for a spot in Saturday’s semifinals.
Burns (6-4) struck out three and allowed six hits and one walk on a career-high 105 pitches. Ole Miss scored two runs in the third on a throwing error by shortstop Will Holland and a run in the eighth on a sacrifice fly by Ryan Olenek.
“They beat us up two weeks ago. That gave us a chip on our shoulder and now we've got a lot of confidence, especially heading into the rest of the tournament,” Burns said.
Calvin Coker held the Rebels to one hit over the final 2.0 innings to pick up his seventh save of the season.
Trailing 2-0, Auburn struck for three runs in the seventh on a two-RBI double by Conor Davis and a passed ball that allowed Luke Jarvis to score from third base. The rally started with back-to-back singles by Julien and Jay Estes to chase Ole Miss starter Ryan Rolison.
“I thought that showed me the most about our ball club is how they continued to play in the middle innings of not scoring and then just waiting, waiting, hanging in there until they got the opportunity,” Thompson said. “Conor had the big swing that made us feel like it was going to be possible today. I thought that was huge.”
The Tigers gave Burns a little insurance in the eighth as Estes drove home two with a bases-loaded double down the left field line and a lot more with two outs in the ninth as Julien pounded an opposite-field grand slam over the left field wall, his 15th home run of the season.
“I was just coming here to help the team win,” said Julien, who had a walk-off RBI single in the 11th inning against Kentucky Tuesday. “To come here and have two wins already is huge for us. All my life I’ve dreamed of playing college baseball and to be here with Auburn and to win two games, that’s big for me.”
Julien was 2-of-4 with two runs scored and four RBI, Estes 2-of-5 with two RBI, Josh Anthony 2-of-4 and Davis 1-of-3 with two RBI.
Auburn improves to 39-19 while Ole Miss falls to 42-15.
Ole Miss reliever Greer Holston (2-1) took the loss allowing a run in the seventh without recording an out. Auburn didn’t get a hit off Rolison until Anthony’s single in the sixth. The sophomore allowed two runs on three hits in 6.1 innings.
“Rolison is one of the best pitchers in the SEC,” Thompson said. “We’ve seen him twice in a short period of time and he’s got a phenomenal future.”
All-American junior right-hander Casey Mize (9-4, 2.94) will start for Auburn against the Aggies. Junior right-hander Mitchell Kilkenny (8-3, 3.00) is expected to start for TAMU. The game will be aired on the SEC Network.
