Tigers walk it off in wild finish

AUBURN | Auburn lost, won, lost, won, lost and finally won Sunday afternoon’s tilt with Ole Miss in a wild final three innings at Plainsman Park.

Trailing 9-8 with two outs in the ninth inning, Mason Maners drove a triple down the right field line and scored on a pinch-hit single by Kaleb Freeman to tie the game.

Pinch-runner Javon Hernandez made it to second base on a wild pitch, stole third and then scored on a passed ball to give the Tigers a 10-9 walk-off win.

“I was fueled on skittles and nerd clusters in the dugout so I was ready,” said Hernandez. “Once I saw the pitcher warming up, he had a high leg kick and with my speed … I’m like this is a good time to be aggressive.”

Auburn improves to 22-24 overall and 4-20 in the SEC and retains an outside shot of earning the 12th and final spot in the SEC Tournament.

“We were fighting all day back and forth,” said Hernandez. “I’m just proud of my guys to keep fighting.”

After spotting the Rebels a 5-0 lead in the first, Auburn fought back to tie the game in the fourth and then take a 6-5 lead in the seventh on back-to-back doubles by Cooper McMurray and Cade Belyeu.

Ole Miss tied it right back up with a leadoff home run by Jackson Ross in the eighth. But AU responded with two in the bottom of the inning on solo home runs by Cooper Weiss and Ike Irish.

They were AU’s first home runs in a conference game since April 21.

The Rebels loaded the bases with one out in the ninth off Conner McBride and Andrew Fischer drove the fourth pitch he saw from Parker Carlson into to the gap in left center to clear the bases and put the Rebels back in front 9-8.

Ole Miss reliever JT Quinn got the first two batters out in the bottom of the ninth before Maners’ triple, which he lined just past the first baseman.

Freeman lined a hard single up the middle to tie it and Hernandez’s aggressive base running gave AU its fourth league win.

“He had a green light with two outs,” said AU coach Butch Thompson. “I could tell on the first pitch he was thinking it. He showed me a lot of aggression there, a veteran ball player. They just didn’t catch it. They had pinch hit and brought in a new catcher.

“He was running to win. He jumped it and that was much needed. We didn’t need to go back out there with where our pitching had gotten to this weekend.”

Carlson (3-1) earned the win allowing one hit over the final 0.2 innings.

Chase Allsup kept AU in the game with a dominant 4.2 innings out of the bullpen. He shutout Ole Miss from the third through the seventh inning with a career-high nine strikeouts before giving up the leadoff home run to Ross in the eighth.

“Allsup gave us a chance today,” said Thompson. "He got through their lineup there a coupler of ties and did a nice job for us.”

Ole Miss jumped on AU starter Carson Myers for five runs in the first on a two-run home run by Fischer and a three-run home run by Treyson Hughes. Myers recorded just two outs before being replaced by Cam Tilly.

Tilly held the Rebels without a hit for 1.2 innings before being lifted due to what Thompson called a light oblique injury in the third.

Auburn fought back to tie the game with back-to-back RBI-singles by Belyeu and Caden Green with two outs in the first, an unearned run in the second, an RBI-single by Green in the third to chase OM starter Mason Nichols and RBI-double by Chris Stanfield in the fourth.

Stanfield, Irish, Belyeu, Green and Deric Fabian had two hits apiece for the Tigers. Belyeu and Green had two RBI apiece.

Auburn plays at Georgia Tech Tuesday night at 5 p.m. CT and returns to SEC play for a three-game series at Missouri beginning Friday night at 6 p.m.