AUBURN, Ala. – Fourth-seeded Penn scored three runs in the 11th to defeat top-seeded Auburn 6-3 Friday at Plainsman Park, ending the Tigers' streak of consecutive NCAA regional victories at nine.
"I give all the credit in the world to Penn," Auburn coach Butch Thompson said. "We knew they had a high-level pitching staff. We just didn't get enough hits. We couldn't link up enough offensively to keep pace."
After a one-out walk in the top of the 11th, Penn's Ryan Taylor broke a 3-3 tie with an RBI double. The Quakers added two more runs on back-to-back safety squeeze bunts.
Penn held Auburn to four singles while stranding 10 Tiger baserunners. Auburn struck out 14 times and was 1-for-15 with runners on, 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position and 0-for-10 with two outs.
Trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the eighth, The Tigers loaded the bases with two outs on a walk and two hit batters, scoring pinch-runner Josh Hall with the tying run when pinch-hitter Brody Moss drew a bases-loaded walk.
Will Cannon pitched around a pair of ninth-inning singles, striking out Seth Werchan to strand two runners but the Tigers went down in order in the bottom of the ninth.
Cannon stranded two more runners in the top of the 10th, but Penn scored three runs on two hits and an error in the 11th. Cannon (3-2) allowed two earned runs and an unearned run on five hits in 2.2 innings.
Penn's Carson Ozmer (2-2) earned the victory, allowing only one hit in 3.1 scoreless innings.
Carter Wright singled with one out in the bottom of the 10th but was doubled up when Penn's first baseman caught Kason Howell's line drive and stepped up the bag to send the game to the 11th.
Auburn led 2-1 with two outs in the top of the eighth when the Quakers drew a walk and Jackson Appel followed with a two-run home run to right field, his third hit of the game.
Trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the sixth, Auburn scored two runs on a bases-loaded walk and an RBI grounder.
Auburn starter Chase Allsup held Penn hitless until Appel led off the top of the fourth with a single to right, advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on Wyatt Henseler's double to give the Quakers a 1-0 lead.
After a one-out walk to Appel in the top of the first, Allsup retired the next eight Penn batters, four by strikeout.
Allsup matched his career high with seven strikeouts, allowing one earned run on three hits in 5.0 innings.
Tanner Bauman relieved Allsup to start the sixth inning, blanking Penn for two innings until running into trouble with two outs in the eighth.
Penn starter Ryan Dromboski shut out Auburn for five innings, exiting with the bases loaded and one out in the sixth after a pair of walks and Ike Irish's second single.
Cooper McMurray drew a bases-loaded walk from Penn reliever Brian Zeldin to plate Bryson Ware to tie the score at 1-1. Howell, playing in his program-record 247th game, followed with a grounder to third that brought home Irish to put the Tigers ahead 2-1.
Auburn (34-22-1) plays second-seeded Southern Miss Saturday at 2 p.m. in an elimination game. The Golden Eagles lost Friday's first game to third-seeded Samford 4-2 in 10 innings. Penn plays Samford Saturday at 8 p.m. in the winners bracket.
"It's baseball and we get another chance to come play tomorrow," Howell said. "We'll do all we can to play our style of baseball and continue to fight and execute a little bit better than we did tonight."
"This team has given us great effort," Thompson said. "They've been a joy. We won nine regional games in a row which is hard to do. We've got to take it one at a time and see if we can find our way through nine innings or however many it takes to win a ballgame and find ourselves here on Sunday. That's the goal."
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jeff_shearer