April 14, 2017
Related Links
-->
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. ÃÆ'Æ'¢ÃƒÆ'¢'¬" Keegan Thompson pitched six innings, but No. 10 Auburn baseball fell victim to a late Tennessee rally and a 5-4 walk-off loss Friday at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
"It's tough competing every day. When you win it feels good and when you wind up short it doesn't feel the same," Auburn head coach Butch Thompson said. "We just have to keep competing. Keegan just battled for us. Again, much like he looked last week, he just didn't surrender anything. As soon as we got to a bullpen, it just wasn't as good."
The Tigers (26-11, 9-5 SEC) led all the way until the eighth when Tennessee tied the game at 4-4 on a sac fly by pinch hitter Matt Waldren. After a scoreless ninth, Corey Herndon (1-1) took over for the 10th and loaded the bases with nobody out. A walk-off sac fly by Andre Lipicius gave the Vols the win.
Keegan Thompson pitched six innings and allowed one run on seven hits. He struck out five with no walks. Andrew Mitchell allowed the tying run in the eighth and pitched a season-long 2.1 innings.
Auburn took the lead in the third on a RBI double by Jonah Todd. The double, Todd's team-leading 12th of the season, scored Blake Logan. Daniel Robert followed with another double two batters to plate Todd and stretch the Tigers' lead to 2-0.
Logan singled to left with two away in the fourth to score Luke Jarvis and widen the Tigers' lead to 3-0.
Logan and Todd both had two hits and one RBI. Robert also recorded a RBI. Conor Davis had two hits.
Auburn chased Tennessee starter Garrett Stallings after 3.2 innings. He allowed three runs on five hits. Zach Linginfelter pitched three relief innings with one unearned run allowed and five strikeouts.
UT closer Jon Lipinski (4-0) pitched 2.1 scoreless innings with five strikeouts.
Tennessee (18-14, 4-10 SEC) got on the board in the fourth with a sac fly to cut Auburn's lead to 3-1.
Jordan Rodgers was 3-for-4 for the Vols. Benito Santiago had two hits.
The Tigers scored a run in the top of the seventh on an error, but the Volunteers came back with two in the bottom half to close to within 4-3.
Auburn and the Vols wrap the series Saturday at 1 pm CT.