April 7, 2016
Ben Braymer had 11 strikeouts in 5.0 relief innings. (Auburn Photo)
COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Ben Braymer struck out 11 in five scoreless relief innings as Auburn baseball battled back for a 11-9 win over Missouri on Thursday night at Taylor Stadium.
Braymer entered with Auburn trailing 9-8 in the fifth and went the distance to secure the victory and improve to 3-2 on the season. His 11 strikeouts were a career high and the most for an Auburn pitcher this season.
"I'm just so proud of our guys," Auburn head coach Butch Thompson said. "Ben Braymer had 11 strikeouts in five innings. There was never any need to get anyone up in the bullpen. That's some things we want to build on. Hopefully we can build off tonight. Our offense was tremendous against a great SEC pitcher. We were relentless.
"We needed this tonight. It's our first SEC win on the road. We have the chance to come out tomorrow and win the series and that's a big deal."
Niko Buentello broke a tie and gave Auburn a 10-9 lead with a solo homer in the eighth. It was his seventh homer of the season moving him into a tie with teammate Anfernee Grier for the SEC lead. Grier gave Auburn some breathing room in the ninth with a RBI triple that stretched the lead to 11-9.
Auburn (15-15, 3-7) got a pair of runs in the first capitalizing on a Reggie McClain throwing error to take a 2-0 lead with Grier and Jordan Ebert crossing the plate. Missouri came back with two runs in the bottom half to tie the game.
Kyler Deese and Cody Nulph added RBI in the second inning. Melvin Gray's RBI single in the third made it 5-2.
Gray had a career-high four hits on the night and tied his career high with three runs scored. Ebert added three hits.
Mizzou (18-14, 2-8) scored seven runs in the fourth to take a 9-5 lead taking advantage of two Auburn errors.
Auburn got three back in the fifth on RBI by Damon Haecker, Gray and Deese to close gap to 9-8. The Tigers tied the game 9-9 one inning later when Haecker was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
Cole Lipscomb was charged with six earned (nine total) in 3.2 innings pitched.
The Tigers got to the Mizzou starter McClain for a career-high 12 hits and eight runs in five innings.
Ian Nelson has three hits to lead Missouri. Trey Harris had three RBI.
Cole Bartlett (2-3) took the loss with two runs allowed in three innings.
Auburn and Missouri continue the series on Friday at 6 p.m.