AUBURN, Ala. – No. 10 Auburn held Kentucky scoreless in the last seven innings but ultimately came up a run short in a 5-4 loss Saturday night at Plainsman Park.
Jake Marciano settled down after a shaky start, while Marcel Kulik and Garrett Brewer combined to pitch the final 5.0 innings in scoreless fashion in relief.
“We got their ace yesterday at the start of the game, and they got our ace today,” head coach Butch Thompson said. “I guess I misled them, but I told the team if they don’t score again we’ll win and get to six runs, and we came up just short.”
Brewer came into a 5-3 game with two on and one out in the sixth, and Kentucky loaded the bases on an infield single. However, the junior lefty buckled down and escaped the inning unscathed with back-to-back strikeouts.
“I just knew I had to come in and throw strikes,” Brewer said. “(Coach Thompson) preaches all of the time to fill up the strike zone with good pitches, so that’s what I came in and did and got out of it.”
Auburn cut its deficit to one with a run on a wild pitch in the bottom of the sixth but left multiple baserunners on for the fourth time in the game and trailed 5-4 through six innings.
After Auburn loaded the bases in the sixth, Kentucky reliver Nile Adcock (3-1) retired nine straight batters until Eric Guevara’s one-out single in the ninth, putting the tying run on base. The Tigers’ fourth hit by pitch of the game put the tying run in scoring position with one out, but a hard-hit flyball to deep right and flyout to center field ended the game.
“That’s the way I want us to play,” Thompson added. “If we’re going to lose a baseball game, that’s absolutely the way I want us to play. That was a great spirit.”
Kentucky (25-9, 7-7 SEC) started the game with a solo home run from Tyler Bell and tacked on two more thanks in part to an error later in the inning to take a 3-0 lead. The Wildcats came back out and started the second with a pair of solo homers from Ethan Hindle and Ryan Schwartz to extend their lead to five.
Auburn (23-11, 7-7 SEC) put a pair of two-out baserunners aboard in each of the first two innings but stranded all four.
Marciano got to two strikes on 13 of the first 18 batters faced, but four of Kentucky’s first five runs came with two strikes.
Auburn got on the scoreboard on a two-out single from Logan Gregorio in the fourth and proceeded to load the bases, but a strikeout ended the inning without further damage.
Marcel Kulik entered in relief of Marciano to start the fifth and worked a clean inning before Auburn cut its deficit to 5-3 with a two-run single from Chris Rembert in the bottom of the inning.
Kentucky threatened by loading the bases with one out in the top of the sixth, but Brewer escaped the aforementioned jam with back-to-back strikeouts.
Auburn cut its deficit to one without a hit in the bottom of the sixth, scoring on two hit by pitches, two wild pitches and an intentional walk to make it a 5-4 game. However, Auburn’s only hit after the fifth inning came on an infield single in the ninth.
Four players in Auburn’s lineup collected multiple hits to account for eight of the team’s nine in the contest. Guevara was one of the four and extended his hitting streak to 10 games. He was joined with multiple hits by Rembert, Gregorio and Brandon McCraine.
The series finale between the Tigers and Wildcats is scheduled for Sunday at 2 p.m. CT on SEC Network.