March 23, 2008
Auburn, Ala. -
Facing a seven-run deficit after six innings, the Auburn baseball team mounted a comeback over the next two innings that came up one run shy as it fell in its series finale with No. 2 Kentucky, 9-8, on Sunday afternoon at Plainsman Park. Auburn won the first two games of the series and comes out of Sunday 14-9, 2-4 SEC.
Kentucky jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first off of Auburn starter Luke Greinke but answered with two of their own in the bottom of the first, highlighted by Mike Bianucci's (1-for-4, BB, 2 R) 26th career home run.
Kentucky (20-2, 4-2 SEC) would not let up in the next three innings, scoring five more runs before the end of the fourth, knocking out Greinke (2-2) after three innings and building a 7-2 lead heading to the fifth.
Kentucky padded its lead to 9-2 in the sixth with a pair of unearned runs off of Evan Crawford but would be held to just a walk and a single the rest of the way, allowing Auburn to mount its furious rally.
Justin Hargett's (1-for-5) single started Auburn's five-run seventh, that included a single by Hunter Morris (3-for-5, 2 R) and Brian Fletcher's (3-for-4, R, 4 RBI) first career home run, a shot over the bullpen wall in right that made it 9-5.
Matt Hall (3-for-5) made it a 9-7 game with his two-out, two-RBI triple to left-center before the seventh was over.
"It's huge for us to win a series," Hall said. "We battled our butts off today to get back in the game but we just didn't have enough in the end. We started out slow but we turned it on in the late innings and that shows you what kind of team we have to come back and make it a one-run ballgame."
Auburn (14-9, 2-4 SEC) added a run in the eighth on Fletcher's sacrifice fly and twice had the tying run on base but could not bring him home in either the eighth or ninth.
"The team really thought we were going to win this game the entire time, even when we were down 9-2. We kept on talking about getting runs across and giving ourselves a chance to win in the end," Auburn Head Coach Tom Slater said.
Brock Baber (1-0) picked up the win in relief for Kentucky, throwing the final 2.1 innings.
Morris extended his hitting streak to 10 games with his first-inning single. For the series, Morris went 6-for-9 with two walks, three RBI and three runs scored.
Auburn gets back on the diamond on Tuesday night against Mercer at 6pm at Plainsman Park.