AUBURN | It was Nate LaRue night at the Hoover Met.

Auburn’s catcher had two hits, drove in three runs and threw two runners out on the bases including one at home to lead the 18th-ranked Tigers to an 8-4 win over Samford.

Auburn improves to 36-16 overall and 12-1 in midweek games.

“Nate LaRue sticks out. I saw his at-bats for sure,” AU coach Butch Thompson told the Auburn Network.

LaRue drove home AU’s first run in the second and the final two with a double in the seventh.

With runners on second and third and two outs in the third, a wild pitch by Carson Skipper got away from LaRue, who tracked it down quickly and flipped the ball back to Skipper to catch Will David at the plate for the final out.

"It was pure reaction,” LaRue told the Auburn Network. “I couldn’t find it. I heard Skip yelling three, three, three. That told me where it was. I just reacted at that point … looked to see if Skip was there and flipped it.”

LaRue ended the seventh inning by throwing out Maurice Hampton trying to steal second. Hampton came into the game with 13 steals in 15 attempts.

The Tigers used seven pitchers with the bullpen throwing 8.0 scoreless innings before giving up a two-run home run with two outs in the ninth. Starter Jordan Armstrong couldn’t make it out of the first allowing two runs on two hits and a walk, but Carson Skipper (5-2) came on to throw 2.1 scoreless innings with four strikeouts to earn the win.

Carson Swilling (1.0), Chase Isbell (0.2), John Armstrong (2.1) and Chase Allsup (1.0) put up scoreless frames with John Armstrong striking out three and Allsup two. Blake Burkhalter allowed two runs in the ninth on two hits with two strikeouts.

“Skipper gets out of a bases-loaded with two outs. Really good for him,” Thompson said. “John Armstrong did the same thing. This could have been a completely different ballgame but those two really had big moments.

“I thought Swilling and Isbell were not as sharp. Burkhalter’s had two appearances in about 17 days. He needs to keep getting sharp by evidence of that inning there.”

After falling behind 2-0 in the first inning, AU struck for five runs in the second. Garrett Farquhar followed LaRue’s RBI single with a double to drive home two. Brody Moore added an RBI groundout and Sonny DiChiara an RBI single.

AU scored three more in the seventh on an RBI single by Kason Howell and LaRue’s two-RBI double.

A defensive substitute, Bryson Ware made a sliding catch near the wall in foul territory down the left field line to end the eighth.

Auburn will conclude the regular season with a three-game series at Kentucky beginning Thursday night at 5:30 p.m. CT on SECN+/ESPN+.

“Same mindset as every other weekend. We’re going to go up there and compete and give it our A-game,” said LaRue.