No. 5 Auburn baseball dropped its first Southeastern Conference series since March against No. 4 Georgia over the weekend at Plainsman Park to close out the regular season.
Auburn fell 2-1 in the series opener on Thursday, dropped the middle game 9-7 and controlled the series-finale with a 14-4 win. Its win on Saturday gave it consecutive 17-win seasons in conference games for the first time since 1999-2000.
Here is a recap of the Tigers’ weekend:
Game one
Despite holding Georgia, one of the nation’s best offenses, to just two runs for only the second time this season, Auburn fell 2-1 in the series opener on Thursday, marking the Tigers’ seventh one-run loss in league play and the 15th one-run game of the season.
Jake Marciano took the loss but turned in his seventh quality – the most in a season since Casey Mize recorded 10 in 2018 – start of the season, while Jackson Sanders held the Bulldogs scoreless with five strikeouts in three innings of relief.
Auburn took the lead in the bottom of the first, scoring one run on three hits. Mason McCraine led things off with a double into the left-center gap before advancing to third on a wild pitch. Eric Guevara plated him with an RBI groundout.
Marciano held the Bulldogs scoreless for 4.2 innings, but Daniel Jackson blasted his 26th homer of the season, an SEC-best, to even things up in the fifth.
Georgia’s Ryan Whitt followed with a solo shot of his own in the sixth to give it a 2-1 lead.
With a runner on second in the bottom half of the inning, Georgia shortstop Kolby Branch leaped to snag a line shot off the bat of Eric Guevara, ultimately saving a run.
Sanders entered in the seventh and allowed just three hits across the final three frames. However, Auburn managed just one hit itself after recording three in the opening frame.
Auburn put the tying run aboard with one out in the ninth, but was unable to move him around after a strikeout and groundout ended the night.
Game two
Auburn faced a six-run deficit after the fifth inning, but its comeback bid came up short, dropping the middle game 9-7. The loss snapped a streak of six straight SEC series wins, the longest streak in a single season since 1995.
The Tigers fell behind 8-2 in the fifth, but tallied four runs in the bottom of the frame to pull within two.
Georgia’s Rylan Lujo hit a solo homer in the sixth to extend the Bulldogs’ lead, but Auburn’s Bub Terrell recorded one of his own in the seventh to make it 9-7. The solo shot marked a team-high-tying 13th home run of the season for Terrell, who has homered in seven straight SEC series.
LJ Cormier turned in a season-high 4.2 innings in relief and held Georgia to one run on four hits with no walks and four strikeouts after the Bulldogs collected eight runs on nine hits in the first 4.1 innings.
Georgia scored five runs, all with two outs, in the first frame. With two strikes, a single to right center scored the first two before a three-run homer made it 5-0.
Auburn answered in its half with a two-run single from Ethin Bingaman, scoring Chase Fralick and Chris Rembert, who reached on a hit-by-pitch and double, respectively.
Andreas Alvarez dropped his third game of the season for the Tigers. After allowing five runs in the first, he held Georgia scoreless from the second through fourth innings.
However, Georgia’s second three-run homer of the game made it 8-2 in the fifth.
Auburn responded with four runs in the bottom half of the inning, scoring the first run on Rembert’s second double of the evening. Bingaman drove in his third and fourth runs with a single to center that bypassed the glove of Lujo. A walk and a hit batter loaded the bases for Auburn, and Cade Belyeu drove in a run on an infield single.
Cormier faced the minimum in the last two frames, but so did Georgia’s Zach Brown, as he retired all six batters he faced.
Game three
Auburn used a fifth-inning onslaught to pull away from Georgia and avoid the sweep on Saturday with a 14-4 win.
The Tigers, who have scored 84 runs in the fifth inning this season, plated six runs on five hits in the inning, highlighted by Terrell’s second home run of the day.
Auburn outhit the Bulldogs for the first time in the series 17-8, and used a career-high 105 pitches in six innings from starter Alex Petrovic, who earned his ninth win of the season, to secure the victory.
Brandon McCraine tallied a game-high four hits and Terrell and Rembert each recorded three to lead the Tigers.
Georgia wasted no time lighting up the scoreboard after Tre Phelps led things off with a single and Jackson blasted his 27th homer and second of the weekend in the next at-bat for a 2-0 lead.
The Bulldogs pushed ahead with a 3-0 lead after a leadoff walk and a blooper down the line in right put a pair in scoring position with no outs. Rembert fielded a groundball moving to his left at second and threw out the lead runner at the plate, but Georgia still plated a run on a sacrifice fly to right.
Auburn pulled even in its half of the second with three runs on as many hits. Bingaman led off the frame with a single to left, then Eric Guevara drew a four-pitch walk. Terrell hit a grounder to first base that ate up Georgia’s Bryce Calloway, who then flipped the ball over pitcher Caden Aoki’s head, who was covering first. Bingaman scored on the errant toss, and Belyeu knocked in a run on a sacrifice fly before Brandon McCraine plated Terrell on a two-out single.
Georgia’s power came back to haunt Auburn again in the fourth as Cole Johnson blasted a two-out shot to regain the lead 4-3. It was his first homer of the season and the team’s seventh of the weekend.
Auburn tied it right back in its half of the inning on a 427-foot home run from Terrell. Brandon McCraine recorded his second hit in as many at-bats, but was left stranded to end the inning.
With Petrovic turning in a clean fifth, Auburn exploded for five runs in its turn at the plate. With a pair of runners in scoring position, Guevara singled through the left side to score one run – it was his first hit in his last 15 at-bats. Terrell cleared the bases with a three-run homer over the wall in right, and Belyeu barreled his first homer of the season to deep right after flirting with a homer in each of his first two at-bats. Rembert singled for the second time in the inning to score the final run of the frame.
Petrovic turned in a clean sixth inning by retiring the side in order to end his day before handing things over to Ryan Hetzler in the seventh, who kept the Bulldogs off the board for the third straight inning.
Auburn added to its lead in the seventh with three runs on four hits. Three consecutive singles to lead off the inning ended in one run – the final one off the bat of Rembert, who drove in his second and third runs of the day. He stole his third base of the day and moved to third on a flyout to center field before Bingaman recorded his seventh double of the season to score him.
The Tigers were mere feet away from becoming the third team this season to run-rule Georgia in the seventh, but Chase Fralick came up just short of his first homer in the series.
However, Hetlzer held the Bulldogs scoreless for the fourth straight frame before Brandon McCraine’s shot off the War Eagle Wall in left ended things in eight, as it scored pinch runner Ty Thompson from second.
Auburn will await final scores from around the league before its seeding for the SEC Tournament, beginning next Tuesday at the Hoover Met, is revealed.
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