The Auburn Tigers (20-22, 2-18) dropped game two of the weekend series in heartbreaking walk-off fashion, falling 3-2 to the LSU Tigers (28-16, 7-13).
Junior infielder Josh Pearson delivered the knock-out blow for the bayou bengals, sending Auburn reliever Conner McBride’s 1-0 delivery over the head of sophomore Chris Stanfield, bringing home graduate student Alex Milazzo to score the game-winning run.
Tiger bats totaled just three hits, scoring their runs through a Stanfield RBI groundout and a wild pitch that plated graduate student Christian Hall. The run from Hall knotted the game at two apiece in the fourth inning, where it would remain until the ninth.
Auburn could not muster any offense, but the pitching gave them every chance to do so. Senior starter Tanner Bauman gave the team a solid 4.1 innings, giving up just two earned runs on five hits. After Bauman’s day was finished, the bullpen followed with 3.2 scoreless innings from redshirt senior Christian Herberholz and freshman Cam Tilly.
Tilly threw a career-high 57 pitches in what was a masterful three innings of work. He struck out seven batters while giving up just two hits.
“Tilly pitched Tuesday, but he had such a good look pitching behind [Chase] Allsup that you wanted to get him back out there,” Auburn head coach Butch Thompson said. “Three innings, a couple of hits, but seeing that he had seven strikeouts, that looks like I’ve seen absolute growth in him.”
There were plenty of chances for more production from the plate for Auburn, but almost every chance was passed up. The Tigers left eight runners on base, and went 0-14 with runners on.
“At the end of the day if you’re looking for a real reason why we’re sitting here not having won a game going into Sunday, it’s just we haven’t had enough at-bats,” Thompson said. “I think that’s five hits in two games, just haven’t had enough good at-bats.”
The loss is Auburn’s tenth consecutive conference defeat, dropping the Tigers to just 2-18 in SEC contests. They are still searching for the first conference road win as well, which will be at stake in game three of the series.
Looking to salvage something from their trip to Baton Rouge, Auburn will come out with junior Carson Myers on the bump in game three. Myers was able to go six innings in a loss at Mississippi State last time out, and will need to replicate that performance to give his squad a good chance to steal a win.
Game three between the Auburn Tigers and the LSU Tigers is set for a 1 p.m. CT first pitch on Sunday. The home call will be on the Auburn Sports Network, and streaming will be on SEC Network+.
