April 5, 2014
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OXFORD, Miss. - The longest SEC baseball game for Auburn in nearly 10 years ended on a walk-off Ole Miss home run in the bottom of the 13th inning as the Tigers fell 8-5 Friday night at Swayze Field.
The Tigers (19-12, 5-5 SEC) had not played an SEC game that went 13 innings since April 24, 2004, against Mississippi State. Friday night, it was the other Magnolia State school, Ole Miss (23-8, 5-5 SEC), that erased a 5-2 eighth-inning Auburn lead to force extra innings.
With inclement weather in the forecast for Sunday, Auburn and Ole Miss will play a doubleheader beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday. Game two of the twinbill will begin 45 minutes after the conclusion of game one.
After the Rebels led off the bottom of the 13th with a single and a double, putting the winning run 90 feet away, Auburn reliever Jay Wade (3-1) was set to intentionally walk Ole Miss third baseman Austin Anderson. But on the first pitch of the at-bat, Anderson made solid contact with an off-target pitch and sent it over the right-field wall to end the ballgame.
Wade was charged with his first loss of 2014 in the second-longest outing of his career, giving up six runs on 11 hits but fighting his way out of several jams in extra innings with four big strikeouts. Senior starter Dillon Ortman was left with a no-decision after his seventh quality start of the season, pitching 7.0 innings while allowing just two runs on five hits while walking one and striking out five.
Sophomore Jordan Ebert had his first career four-hit game, finishing with three singles and a double to go along with an RBI and a run scored. Senior Blake Austin finished 3-for-6 with two runs scored and a pair of RBIs.
Auburn jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead in the first, thanks in part to a pair of Ole Miss errors. Ebert led off with a double, moved to third as Dan Glevenyak reached on throwing error, then scored as Glevenyak stole second and the catcher's throw sailed into center field.
A second run came across in the fifth as Auburn loaded the bases with one out, and a sacrifice fly by Ebert brought home Austin to make it 2-0.
Ole Miss tied things up in the fifth when a two-out single from Preston Overbey scored Sikes Orvis from second to make it 2-1, and Overbey scored two batters later on an RBI single from Braxton Lee to tie the score at 2-2.
The Tigers broke things open in the sixth inning, scoring three runs on four hits to snap a 2-2 tie. Back-to-back singles by Ryan Tella and Damek Tomscha, followed by a sacrifice from Daniel Robert, brought up Austin with two runners in scoring position. He came through in a big way, driving a double down the left-field line to bring home both runs and give Auburn a 4-2 lead. Two batters later, Keegan Thompson delivered a two-out RBI single, scoring Austin from second to make it 5-2.
But Ole Miss answered in a big way in the eighth, jumping on Wade for three runs on four hits to tie the game at 5-5.
Josh Laxer (2-0) took the win for the Rebels, scattering three hits over 2.2 innings of relief. Braxton Lee led Ole Miss at the plate with three hits. Anderson was 2-for-5 with three RBI, all coming on the walk-off homer.