HOOVER — Fueled by a pair of solo home runs, No. 6 seed Auburn baseball snapped a three-game losing streak in the SEC Tournament with a 3-1 victory over No. 14 seed LSU on Wednesday at the Hoover Met.
Chase Fralick blasted a solo shot in the fourth frame, and Erica Guevara followed in the sixth, giving Auburn a two-run lead it held onto for the remainder of the night.
The orange and blue Tigers got a pair of strong performances on the mound from starter Jake Marciano and Jackson Sanders, who relieved him in the seventh. Marciano earned his fifth win of the season, yielding one run on four hits through six innings of work. Sanders nearly faced the minimum through three innings of work, retiring seven straight batters to earn his fourth save of the season.
Sanders escaped harm's way in the ninth after issuing a pair of walks – both ball four calls were overturned after LSU used the Automated Ball-Strike system to its advantage – but Sanders issued a groundball out to end the game.
LSU drew first blood after a lead-off double down the right field line to lead off the fourth frame. Marciano issued his first walk of the night an at-bat later, and a sacrifice bunt and flyout led to the Bayou Bengals’ only run.
Fralick put Auburn on the scoreboard with an opposite-field home run to lead off its half of the fourth. Leaving his bat at 99 MPH, the ball traveled 394 feet, marking his 14th homer of the season.
With a pair of runners aboard in the fifth, Chris Rembert dribbled an infield single over Casan Evans’ head on the mound. Brandon McCraine baited the LSU second baseman into an errant throw at third on the play, allowing him to score.
Facing a 3-2 count, Guevara blasted a solo shot 385 feet over the videoboard in left field to give Auburn the 3-1 lead it closed out with in the sixth. The homer marked his 12th of the season and flew off the bat at 105 MPH.
Auburn will take on No. 3 seed Texas A&M in Game 12 of the Tournament, scheduled for 7 p.m. on Friday. The Tigers secured a 2-1 series win over the Aggies in the regular season in Bryan-College Station.
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