AUBURN, Ala. – No. 23 Auburn scored six unanswered runs to come from behind and defeat No. 17 Ole Miss, 7-4, in the series opener at Plainsman Park Thursday night.
The Tigers (25-13, 9-7 SEC) trailed 4-1 through two innings but scored two in the third, two in the sixth and one in each of the seventh and eighth frames to take down the Rebels (26-13, 9-7 SEC) and improve to 9-1 in series openers this season, including 6-0 at home.
"I just thought we were steady," head coach Butch Thompson said on the Auburn Sports Network. "We were steady when we were down, we were steady to climb back in it, and we looked steady when we took the lead."
Freshman right-hander Richard Fitts (3-2, 4.55) turned in a gem in relief en route to earning the win. The Helena, Alabama, native tossed 4.1 scoreless innings and faced just three batters over the minimum while turning in a season-high four strikeouts.
"I was just trying to go out there and give my team the best chance to win," Fitts said. "My breaking ball was working well for me as well as my fastball, so I felt really good tonight."
Fitts retired 11 of 12 batters from the end of the fourth through the seventh inning before allowing a leadoff single in the eighth and giving way to Cody Greenhill. The sophomore closer took it from there and retired all six batter he faced with three strikeouts. The save was Greenhill's ninth of the season, including his league-leading seventh in conference play.
Edouard Julien lead the way from the plate as he matched a season-high with four RBI and hit his team-best eighth home run of the season. The multi-RBI effort was Julien's 13th of the year and 31st of his career.
"It's huge," Julien said of the series-opening win. "We knew they were a pretty good team, they could swing it, and they had their big pitcher going tonight. To get a win with Tanner (Burns) going tomorrow, it's pretty big for us."
After the two teams traded runs in the first inning, Ole Miss took advantage of a pair of Auburn fielding miscues to score three runs in the second and jump out to a three-run lead.
The Tigers battled back in the bottom of the third when Julien stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and lifted a two-RBI single off the wall in left field.
With Fitts keeping the Rebels scoreless on the mound, Auburn tied the game on a RBI fielder's choice from Will Holland in the sixth and scored the go-ahead run on a near home run that turned into a sacrifice fly off the bat of Steven Williams later that inning.
Julien blasted the aforementioned home run in the seventh to give the Tigers a two-run cushion before Ryan Bliss lifted a sacrifice fly to left field in the eighth to cap off the scoring in the contest.
Along with Julien, Rankin Woley turned in his second straight multi-hit effort, and Judd Ward reached base three times and scored a pair of runs out of the leadoff spot.
Game two between the Tigers and Rebels is scheduled for Friday at 6 p.m. CT. Auburn's Tanner Burns (4-1, 2.05) will square off with Ole Miss' Doug Nikhazy (3-3, 3.57).