LEXINGTON, Ky. – Ike Irish capped off a five-hit game with a go-ahead home run in the 11th inning to lead No. 16 Auburn to an 8-7 series-clinching win at No. 24 Kentucky Saturday at Kentucky Proud Park.
The series win marks the team’s eighth straight winning weekend dating back to the end of the 2024 season, marking the longest such streak since 2003.
“That’s the biggest thing we have going for us right now,” head coach Butch Thompson said of his team’s resiliency. “We’re playing good baseball, but we’re not playing elite baseball, and we know we want to grow into it. This series on the road, you have to absolutely beat somebody and finish them off. You could get a call, all of the excuses just put them to the side. The resilience gave us a second chance to win this ballgame, and we took full advantage of it.”
Tied 7-7 with one out in the top of the 11th, Irish swung on a 1-1 pitch and kept it fair down the right field line to reclaim the lead for the Tigers. It was Irish’s second home run and fifth hit of the game, marking the program’s first five-hit game in SEC play since 2011.
“I’ve been looking for that swing all year, and it was able to come up in the big moment,” Irish said of his go-ahead homer. “I couldn’t have gotten to that swing without Jackson Sanders bearing down and same with Parker (Carlson) that inning before.”
After Parker Carlson came in to record the last out of the 10th inning and teamed up with Sanders to escape a bases-loaded jam with one out, Kentucky put the potential tying run on to start the 11th inning and ultimately moved the runner 90 feet from scoring. With a 1-2 count, the runner broke for home, but Carlson stepped off and threw to Chase Fralick, who applied the tag at the plate to end the game.
“We had a bunch of guys throw the ball really well today,” Carlson said. “I just wanted to pick the team up. We play so hard every day. You can’t help but have a little adrenaline rush and want to win so bad when these guys are behind you.”
Auburn (19-4, 4-1 SEC) grabbed an early lead when Bub Terrell reached on a fielder’s choice, stole second and scored on Fralick’s single up the middle on an 0-2 count.
The Tigers made it 2-0 in the second when Cade Belyeu tripled off the right field wall and scored on Deric Fabian’s sacrifice fly.
Auburn starter Cade Fisher pitched three scoreless innings and retired six straight Wildcats before Tyler Bell’s solo home run with two outs in the bottom of the fourth trimmed the Tigers’ lead to 2-1. In his longest outing of the season, Fisher worked 4.0 innings, allowing two hits and an earned run while striking out one Wildcat.
Kentucky (14-7, 1-4 SEC) greeted reliever Andreas Alvarez with a single and a double in the bottom of the fifth, tying the score at 2-2. The Wildcats took a 3-2 lead when Shaun Montoya advanced to third and scored on consecutive wild pitches.
Auburn answered immediately with four runs in the top of the sixth. Irish led off with a double to left, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored the tying run on Chris Rembert’s single to left. Belyeu’s second extra-base hit of the game, a ground-rule double to right, put two Tigers in scoring position, and Deric Fabian’s full-count single to left scored Rembert to give Auburn a 4-3 lead. Eric Snow followed with an RBI single to left to plate Belyeu, then Terrell’s fielder’s choice groundout scored Fabian to put the Tigers on top 6-3.
Staked to a three-run lead, Alvarez, the SEC freshman of the week, responded with a shutdown inning, setting down the Wildcats in order in the bottom of the sixth and retiring seven in a row before allowing a one-out single in the seventh.
Alvarez exited in the eighth after a leadoff walk and a single, relieved by Cam Tilly, who was brilliant, striking out three straight Wildcats to preserve Auburn’s three-run lead.
Irish led off the top of the ninth with a towering home run to right, the first of his two home runs in the game, which marked his second career multi-homer contest.
After earning the save in Friday’s 8-7 Auburn win, Ryan Hetzler entered in the bottom of the ninth, allowing four runs to score while recording two outs. After Hayden Murphy relieved Hetzler with two outs and a runner on second, Hudson Brown doubled to right to tie the game at 7-7.
The Tigers appeared to have won the game when Terrell made what he thought was a diving catch in left for the third out, but a video review concluded Terrell trapped the ball in his glove.
Kentucky loaded the bases on two hit batters and a walk with one out in the 10th inning, but the combination of Sanders, Carlson and a five-man Auburn infield ultimately escaped the inning with a popup to shallow left field and a groundout to third base.
The Tigers then put the finishes touched on the series-clinching win in the 11th.
Seeking a series sweep, freshman Christian Chatterton will start Sunday’s finale at 1 p.m. CT.
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on X: @jeff_shearer