BATON ROUGE, La. – Auburn used a six-run fifth inning and solid effort from three of its arms to defeat No. 12 LSU, 6-5, in the series opener at Alex Box Stadium Thursday night.
Trailing 2-0 after solo homers in the first and fourth innings, Auburn sent 10 batters to the plate in the top of the fifth and scored six runs on five hits, an intentional walk and an error to take a lead that it wouldn't relinquish.
"We wound up scoring six, which barely held up here with a crazy crowd here at Alex Box," head coach Butch Thompson said. "That's us going for it tonight."
Cam Hill tied the game with a two-run single, and Brody Moore provided the big swing with a three-run home run in the fifth inning, his second homer of the season.
"Hitting is contagious," Moore said. "We linked it up, and it was really nice for us to get on a roll.
"He threw me a first-pitch fastball that I hit a line drive on in my first at-bat, so I was sitting slider. He threw it to me, and I just let it eat."
After Hayden Mullins threw the first four frames, Carson Skipper (2-0, 3.28) pitched 3.1 innings and earned the win while bridging the gap to closer Blake Burkhalter, who recorded the final five outs for his fifth save of the season.
"That's a big win," Skipper said. "Winning game one sets the tone and lets them know we are here to battle this weekend.
"My job as a reliever is to come in and get the first guy out," Skipper added. "I feel like myself and Blake did that pretty well tonight. We both went out and competed, and Nate (LaRue) called a great game."
With Auburn (18-8, 4-3 SEC) leading 6-4 entering the ninth inning, LSU (18-8, 3-4 SEC) threatened by putting runners on the corners with nobody out. The Tigers cut the deficit to one on a sacrifice fly, but Burkhalter got a strikeout and Josh Hall made a nice catch on a flyout to right field to leave the tying run in scoring position and end the game.
The win was Auburn's first in a series opener in Baton Rouge since 2011.
After LSU started the scoring with a leadoff homer on the second pitch of the game, Auburn threatened in each of the first two innings, putting two aboard with one out in the first and two aboard with two outs in the second. However, the Tigers came up empty in both frames.
Mullins hung though in the early innings, bouncing back from the leadoff home run to strike out five in the first three frames and hold LSU scoreless in the second and third. The junior lefty ultimately allowed two runs on three hits with two walks and a season-high seven strikeouts in four innings.
LSU added a run on a solo homer in the fourth, but Auburn answered in a big way with a six-run fifth. With two outs and two on, the Tigers made LSU pay for intentionally walking Sonny DiChiara as Hill hit a two-RBI single through the right side and Moore followed two pitches later with his three-run homer. Auburn added an unearned run on a fielding miscue later in the frame.
Skipper took the mound in relief of Mullins following the big top of the fifth and allowed just one hit and two baserunners in the fifth through seventh frames. LSU narrowed the gap to 6-4 with a two-run home run and double to run Skipper from the game with one out in the eighth. Burkhalter recorded the final two outs of the frame with a strikeout and flyout to strand the runner in scoring position.
Similar to the eight, the junior righty struck out LSU cleanup hitter Jacob Berry with the tying run in scoring position for the second out of the ninth before the flyout to foul territory in right ended the game.
Blake Rambusch extended his hitting streak to 16 games, matching Jonah Todd for the longest hitting streak in the last six seasons, and ultimately collected multiple hits for the 14th time this season. Moore and Mike Bello matched Rambusch with two hits in the contest.
The two teams turn around for game two of the three-game series Friday at 6:30 p.m. CT.
Big inning, solid pitching leads Auburn past No. 12 LSU
