After winning three straight elimination games to keep its season alive, No. 4 Auburn capped its regional comeback Monday night at Plainsman Park with an 8-3 win over Milwaukee, using a five-run sixth inning to punch its ticket to a second straight Super Regional.
In front of a single-game attendance record of 8,228, the Tigers’ win marked the first time in program history that they have advanced to a Super Regional after losing the opening game.
With the game knotted at two apiece through five innings, Auburn turned in its fourth inning of five-plus runs during the regional tournament, the most by any team in the field.
After a lackluster showing in the Tigers’ Friday loss to the Panthers, Jake Marciano bounced back in a big way, tossing four innings with six strikeouts and a pair of runs given up.
Auburn plated its first run off the ballgame in the bottom of the first after three straight two-out singles. Chase Fralick recorded his eighth hit of the regional – his first single. Chris Rembert singled to right, extending his hitting streak to 17 games, before Ethin Bingaman plated Fralick from second, recording his 50th RBI.
The Tigers doubled their lead in the third after Eric Guevara reached on a fielder’s choice, swiped second, and advanced to third on an errant throw. Fralick continued to stay hot, driving in his 14th run of the weekend.
Milwaukee tied the ball game with one swing after John Hadley ripped a two-run shot to straight-away center in the fourth.
Marciano buckled down and found a pair of outs to end the frame before turning things over to Jackson Sanders in relief.
Auburn reclaimed the lead with a five-spot in the home half of the sixth. Fralick kick-started the scoring with his sixth home run of the regional, a solo shot over the wall in center. The blast was Fralick’s 20th of the season, making him the first catcher in program history to reach the 20-homer mark. It also extended his home run streak to five consecutive games, making him the first Division-I player this decade to record two separate five-game home run streaks in the same season.
With one out and runners on the corners, Bub Terrell came through with a chopper over the first baseman’s head to drive in Rembert – Terrell’s first hit in four games – and Brandon McCraine’s sacrifice fly scored one more. Taylor Belza delivered another on a single through the middle before Mason McCraine crushed his second triple of the season off the wall in left-center, scoring Belza from first to cap off the inning’s scoring efforts.
Sanders ended the fifth and sixth frames with inning-ending strikeouts, stranding the fourth Panther of the evening at first in the sixth. He retired the side in the seventh, marking the first frame of the night in which Milwaukee did not place a runner on the base paths.
Staring a five-run deficit in the eyes, Milwaukee’s Charlie Marion hammered his eighth homer in the last 15 games, a solo blast over the wall in right to cut into the Tigers’ lead in the eighth.
Auburn added an insurance run in the home half of the frame after a trio of walks loaded the bases and a wild pitch brought one home for the Tigers to close things out with an 8-3 lead.
Milwaukee threatened in the ninth with a one-out double off the bottom of the wall in center, but Sanders found a pair of outs, earning his fifth win of the season.
The Tigers will host Ole Miss in their second straight Super Regional this weekend at Plainsman Park.
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