AUBURN, Ala. – Everett Lau hit a pinch-hit, walk-off single in the bottom of the 11th inning to lift Auburn to an 8-7 win against North Alabama in the home finale at Plainsman Park Tuesday night.
Lau stepped into the box and swung on the first pitch he saw from North Alabama reliever Garrett Gillum (0-2, 9.15), sending it just inside the left-field line to score Ryan Bliss from third and end the game.
"It was one of those where you just go up there and hit," Lau said. "The situation was set up, and I tried to get a good pitch to swing at. It came off the cap, but we'll take it."
The walk-off win was Auburn's (31-21) fourth of the season, including its second in the last three games.
"We've been taking on a lot of water, but at the end of the day I love how our guys still represent Auburn and our baseball program," head coach Butch Thompson said on the Auburn Sports Network. "They hung in there and found a way to win the ballgame."
Redshirt-junior lefty Kyle Gray (2-3, 4.87) earned the win after throwing 2.2 scoreless innings and striking out three batters. Gray hasn't allowed a run in three outings and 7.0 innings pitched. Freshman right-hander Richard Fitts turned in a season-high 6.1 innings and struck out a season-high eight batters in relief.
"Those two pitchers, they worked around that typical Tuesday start that we've had of getting behind," Thompson said of Gray and Fitts. "They showed resilience to hang in there, and I respect them for that."
Trailing 5-0 through the top of the second inning, Auburn answered North Alabama's three runs in the top of the second with a three-run home run off the bat of Steven Williams in the home half. The home run was Williams sixth of the season.
Auburn cut the two-run deficit to one as Brody Moore battled with two strikes and hit a two-out RBI single to right field. The Tigers then tied the game the next inning when Will Holland hit a solo home run to left field. It was Holland's seventh home run of the season and his fifth in the last 14 games.
With Fitts holding North Alabama in check by retiring 18 of 19 batters faced, including 12 straight, from the second until the eighth inning, Auburn was able to take the lead on a sacrifice fly from Rankin Woley in the bottom of the eighth.
North Alabama answered by scoring two runs in the top of the ninth, but the Tigers sent the game into extra innings as Holland hit a two-out, two-strike pitch into right field to score pinch runner Jarrett Eaton from second.
Holland turned in his fifth multi-hit performance in the last seven games and drove in a pair of runs in the contest, including the game-tying run in the bottom of the ninth. Williams also collected a pair of hits and matched a season high with three RBI in the game.
Auburn wraps up the regular season with a three-game series at No. 20 LSU (32-21, 15-12 SEC) from Thursday-Saturday in Baton Rouge.