March 7, 2015
 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
AUBURN, Ala. - Junior infielder Melvin Gray singled on the infield and beat the throw at first to allow Jordan Ebert to score from third and give Auburn baseball a 3-2 win over Xavier in 11 innings on Saturday at Plainsman Park.
Gray, who entered as a pinch runner in the ninth inning, hit a hard chopper over the head of the pitcher that was fielded by Xavier shortstop Andre Jernigan. Jernigan's throw to first was wide of the bag, but Gray had already reached with a single.
The throw got away from first baseman Joe Forney and Ebert, who moved from second to third on the hit, sprinted home for the winning run.
The loss dropped Xavier to 4-8 on the season.
Closer Justin Camp (1-0) got the victory for the Tigers with 3.1 innings of quality relief. The junior from Decatur, Ala. struck out a season-high seven batters while only allowing two hits.
Senior right-hander Rocky McCord turned in a quality start as he allowed only two earned in 6.1 innings. He struck out five and scatter five hits in his fourth start of the season.
Auburn (12-3) took the lead in the fourth inning on an RBI single by Hunter Tackett. Another run came across when Tackett scored later in the inning as Ben Craft hit into a double play for a 2-0 advantage.
The Musketeers scratched across single runs in the fifth and seventh innings. Brian Bruening scored in the fifth on an RBI single by Rylan Bannon. In the seventh, David Morton hit a sacrifice fly to that scored Blaine Griffiths.
Cody Nulph and Sam Gillikin both had two hits for Auburn. Anfernee Grier doubled in the third inning to extend his career-best hitting streak to 17 games.
Zach Johnson took the loss in extras for Xavier. Derek Hasenbeck, Bruening and Bannon each had two hits to lead the Musketeers.
Auburn and Xavier wrap up the series on Sunday at 1 p.m.