ATLANTA | Mr. Regional strikes again.
Steven Williams hit a two-strike, two-out, three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth to give Auburn a walk-off 6-5 win over No. 3 national seed Georgia Tech Saturday night in the Atlanta Regional at Russ Chandler Stadium.
Williams now has five hits, two home runs and eight RBI in two games in Atlanta. In five NCAA Regional games over the past two seasons, Williams is 13 of 22 with 10 runs scored, one double, one triple, three home runs and 13 RBI.
“As soon as he hit that ball I was like ‘man that’s just like the first inning’ except he got to the part that it really jumps out. I was like ‘son of a gun’. I knew it as soon as it was off the bat,” Auburn coach Butch Thompson said.
The win advances Auburn to the championship game of the Regional against either the Yellow Jackets or Coastal Carolina, which play an elimination game Sunday morning at 11 a.m. CT. The winner will play Auburn at 5 p.m. If AU loses Sunday, there will be a final game Monday at 11 a.m. to determine which team advances to a Super Regional.
“My message to our team, we've got a bunch of work left to do, and we're aware of that,” Thompson said. “It puts us in a better position, I will not deny that, but we'll have to come with the same focus and intensity and play a complete game if we want to finish our opportunity here in Atlanta.”
All four of Auburn’s runs in the ninth were unearned. The inning started with Conor Davis reaching on a fielding error by Georgia Tech shortstop Luke Waddell and then Will Holland was hit by starter Connor Thomas on an 0-2 pitch. Matt Scheffler then flew out to right and Edouard Julien struck out to set up the dramatic finish.
Rankin Woley quickly singled to left field to bring home pinch-runner Jarrett Eaton and cut Georgia Tech’s lead to 5-3. Williams, who was 0-for-3 i the game with a strikeout, got behind 0-2 before Thomas hung a slider and Williams drove it deep over the right field wall.
"The one I hit out, he just hit a slider that was up in the zone, and I saw it and I put a good swing on it. Fortunately it came out on top,” Williams said.
It’s Auburn’s first walk-off home run in a Regional since David Ross at the Tallahassee in 1997, which was the last time the Tigers made it to the College World Series.
Richard Fitts (4-3) was AU’s pitching hero, earning the win with 6.0 scoreless innings out of the bullpen. The freshman right-hander allowed four hits, didn’t walk a batter and struck out four on 84 pitches.
“This is my first time pitching in a regional, so I guess I was a little bit more nervous than usual, but I knew that I had everybody behind me,” Fitts said. “I know Steven was going to be behind me the whole time, and just everybody, even with the errors, we still bounced back and you could just tell with everybody that they were locked in, they were ready to play.
“You know, we had 11 hits tonight. That’s going to kind of get overlooked just because of Steven’s home run at the end. But the hitters were fighting all game and I was just trying to give our team the best chance to win, every inning, every pitch."
AU starter Tanner Burns allowed five runs, one earned, on five hits in 3.0 innings. Tech scored four unearned runs of their own in the second after a line drive bounced out of Williams’ glove for an error.
Ryan Bliss got Auburn off to a 1-0 lead in the first on a solo home run, his third of the season before Tech built a 5-1 lead. The Tigers got one back in the sixth on a throwing error by Thomas as Kason Howell scored on a ground ball to the pitcher.
Judd Ward, Julien and Howell had two hits apiece for the Tigers. Thomas (9-2) was the hard-luck loser for Tech allowing six runs, one earned, on 11 hits in 8.2 innings. The junior lefty struck out six and didn’t issue a walk on 105 pitches.
