April 2, 2017
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AUBURN, Ala. ÃÆ'Æ'¢ÃƒÆ'¢'¬" Freshman Conor Davis hit a walk-off three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth to give No. 17 Auburn baseball a 6-5 victory and the series win over No. 6 South Carolina Sunday at Plainsman Park.
It is the first walk-off home run for Auburn since February 15, 2013 when Damek Tomscha delivered a solo shot for a 3-2 win against Maine. The victory gives the Tigers their first series win at Plainsman Park over South Carolina since 1996. Auburn has won seven-straight series to open the season.
"What a moment for Conor Davis that he will never forget," Auburn head coach Butch Thompson said. "In the moment, he got a good pitch to hit. That's what we keep fighting for. Man, the moment. That was a heavyweight fight and that was definitely a world champion heavyweight team out of South Carolina. They threw a punch and it looked like we were dead. To be able to throw another punch, that's part of it. We're going to get beat up and bad things are going to happen, but this team has been so resilient this year and we threw the last punch. Casey Mize threw a punch, Clark Schmidt threw a pitch yesterday for Carolina, [Carlos] Cortes hits a home run and we get the final punch to win a series at home."
Trailing 5-3 in the bottom of the ninth, Jonah Todd and Daniel Robert hit back-to-back singles to put runners on first and second with no outs. A fielder's choice and a flyout quickly put the Tigers down to their final outs. Davis pinch-hit for Bowen McGuffin and belted a 2-1 slider over the monster in left for his first career home run and the win.
"Honestly, going through it I was just waiting for my opportunity," Davis said. "I knew Coach Sisson had been telling me all game just to 'be ready to hit, be ready to hit.' He came up to me in the end of the eighth and said, 'just get ready in the ninth, you're coming in.' That was exciting."
Auburn improved to 23-7 (7-2 SEC) in SEC play to match its overall win total from 2016.
Calvin Coker (2-1) earned the win pitching a perfect final two innings. Cole Lipscomb tossed a season-high four innings of relief allowing one hit, an earned run and one walk with three strikeouts on a season-high 61 pitches. Freshman Ryan Watson made his first career start going 2.0 innings and allowing four hits and one earned run.
Trailing 2-0, Auburn tied the game in the fourth as Robert plated Jay Estes on an RBI groundout and Dylan Ingram hit a run-scoring single to score Todd. The Tigers then took a 3-2 lead in the sixth as Robert delivered his second RBI of the game on a sac fly to center to plate Estes.
Robert finished 1-for-3 with a pair of RBI. Estes was 3-for-4 and scored two runs while Todd finished 3-for-3.
South Carolina (19-8, 6-3 SEC) used a three-run seventh to take the 5-3 lead into the ninth. TJ Hopkins hit a 2-run home run, Jonah Bride was 3-for-4 with a RBI and LT Tolbert went 2-for-3 with a RBI.
Gamecock starter Adam Hill tossed five innings with two runs allowed on five hits. Josh Reagan (3-1) was charged with the loss after allowing the walk-off.
The final weekend attendance tally of 11,914 is the largest series total at Plainsman Park since 2003 and the third-largest in stadium history.
Auburn hosts Georgia Tech Tuesday at 6 pm.