Tigers stun MSU with late comeback
It only took Kason Howell a few innings to earn a little redemption and deliver one of Auburn’s most important hits of the season.
The true freshman centerfielder poked a two-strike, two-out single into right field to score Edouard Julien from second and give the 12th-ranked Tigers a 6-5 come-from-behind win over No. 2 Mississippi State Friday night at Dudy Noble Field.
Three innings earlier, Howell dropped a line drive in center to allow an unearned run that gave the Bulldogs what appeared to be a comfortable 5-0 lead in the sixth.
"The resiliency of a young player for him to get the two-strike hit, the winning run, to shoot that ball into right field after that happened, is telling us and our fans and our team that we just keep hanging in there and finding a way," Auburn coach Butch Thompson told the Auburn Network.
With its 15th consecutive win, Auburn improves to 20-2 overall and 4-0 in the SEC. Mississippi State falls to 20-3 and 2-2.
After garnering one hit through the first 5.0 innings, the Tigers erupted for two runs in the sixth, seventh and eighth on eight hits including back-to-back solo home runs by Steven Williams and Rankin Woley in the sixth to spark the comeback.
Howell led off the seventh with an infield single and Judd Ward followed with a double. Both scored on RBI groundouts by Matt Scheffler and Will Holland to cut MSU’s lead to 5-4.
Rankin Woley led off the eighth with single and scored on a double by Julien. A couple of strikeouts brought Howell to the plate with two outs and he was able to drive in the winning run after falling behind 0-2.
“The team just showed amazing resilience and competitiveness tonight at the plate,” Howell told AuburnTigers.com. "Steven and Rankin had back-to-back bombs and that kind of fired the dugout up and gave us some life. That last at-bat when I was up there, I got down two strikes pretty quick and choked up, tried to stick to my approach and poked the ball the other way and it ended up working out for me.”
Howell and Woley had two hits apiece. Ward made a diving catch in shallow left field in the eighth to help preserve the lead.
"I thought our guys held in this environment, battled hard to get back and deserved it. There were just some great at-bats. The two solo shots, Julien has another great at-bat," Thompson said.
Elliott Anderson (4-0) earned the win retiring two batters in the seventh. Cody Greenhill allowed one single over the final two innings to earn his fourth save of the season.
"I had to stay locked in because once we started coming back I had to find that tunnel vision that I have," Greenhill told the Auburn Network.
The Bulldogs jumped on Auburn starter Tanner Burns for four runs in the first. The sophomore right-hander allowed five runs, four earned, in 5.0 innings. He struck out four and issued three walks on 100 pitches.
"I give Tanner Burns a ton of credit, 40 pitches basically in the first inning and he gets through five innings," Thompson said. "He’s not always perfect but he’ll compete his heart out every time he takes the mound."
Kyle Gray followed Burns and held MSU to one hit over 1.1 innings.
The series continues Saturday at 2 p.m. CT and concludes Sunday at 1 p.m. Both games will be on SECN+. Freshman left-hander Carson Skipper (3-0, 2.86) will get the start for AU against MSU freshman right-hander JT Ginn (5-0, 2.59).
