COLLEGE STATION, Texas \u2013\u00a0No. 6 Auburn scored two runs in the ninth inning and had the bases loaded with one out but ultimately dropped a 4-3 finale to No. 7 Texas A&M Sunday afternoon at Blue Bell Park.<\/p>\n
Trailing 4-1 going into the ninth, Auburn scored a pair of runs and had the bases loaded with one out after Bub Terrell<\/a>\u2019s RBI single. Brandon McCraine<\/a> nearly tied the game as a fly ball down the right filed line dropped a foot into foul territory, and Texas A&M closer Clayton Freshcorn made the pitch he needed to get a double play to end the game.<\/p>\n \u201cI was pleased with our pitchers the entire series,\u201d Auburn coach Butch Thompson<\/a> said. \u201cTo hold this offense, arguably thinking it\u2019s the best patience and power in the entire country to four runs today, they got the timely hit. We didn\u2019t control the at-bats well. I\u2019ll give their starting pitcher a lot of credit. Our guys just buckled down late and our at-bats were better in the last couple frames and scared them to death.\u201d<\/p>\n In a one-run game in the sixth inning, Texas A&M extended its lead on a three-run home run from Chris Hacopian, proving to be the difference in the contest.<\/p>\n \u201cThat timely hit was big today,\u201d Thompson added. \u201cHacopians\u2019 three-run homer was a big one because Petro was pretty good today. He threw well and gave us a chance. We just didn\u2019t swing the bat as well. The second half of this series, the runs became harder to get. The guys battled. We had some really good at-bats. We buckled down and finished as strong as we could.\u201d<\/p>\n Rembert\u2019s second hit of the contest in the ninth inning resulted in the first run of the inning to spark the late-inning life. Ethin Bingaman<\/a> and Terrell turned in back-to-back singles to make it a one-run game with the bases loaded, but the aforementioned double play ended the contest.<\/p>\n \u201cWe did what we needed to do,\u201d Rembert said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t get the result we wanted in the last game, but it was a great weekend overall. Going into the ninth inning we were full of confidence. It\u2019s only going to prepare us. I\u2019m really looking forward to the competition.\u201d<\/p>\n Unlike the first two games, Texas A&M (35-10, 15-8 SEC) started the scoring in the finale on a RBI groundout from Chris Hacopian in the bottom of the first inning, scoring Gavin Grahovac on the play after a leadoff double and stolen base.<\/p>\n After allowing the leadoff double to Grahovac, Alex Petrovic<\/a> (7-2) retired the next 14 Aggies he faced until allowing a two-out single in the fifth. The baserunner was stranded with Petrovic\u2019s sixth strikeout of the game.<\/p>\n On the other side, Texas A&M starter Weston Moss retired the first six batters he faced before Brandon McCraine<\/a> reached on a strikeout that resulted in a wild pitch. The junior right hander faced the minimum and struck out six on 69 pitches through 6.0 innings.<\/p>\n Auburn (32-14, 14-10 SEC) hit a pair of balls hard to start the sixth inning, but the first from McCraine was a lineout to third and the second from Eddie Madrigal<\/a> was a grounder into the shift in shallow right field.<\/p>\n Leading 1-0, Texas A&M extended its lead with a pair of singles followed by a three-run home run from Hacopian in the sixth, making it a 4-0 game.<\/p>\n Auburn broke up Moss\u2019 no hitter on a leadoff double from Mason McCraine<\/a> in the seventh, and the freshman right fielder later scored on a RBI single from Rembert. The Tigers brought the tying run to the plate after a walk, but Freshcorn got a strikeout to end the seventh.<\/p>\n LJ Cormier<\/a> and Ryan Hetzler<\/a> held the Aggies in check, turning in a combined 2.1 scoreless innings to allow the Tigers to make their comeback bid that came up just short.<\/p>\n Despite Sunday\u2019s loss, Auburn secured its SEC-best fifth straight series win with Saturday\u2019s doubleheader sweep. Its the first time the Tigers have won five straight SEC series since the end of the 2023 season.<\/p>\n \u201cThe standard and effort has to be the same every day,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cYou keep your head down. The mission is the same. We\u2019ve got two more weeks with our head down. This is the best training in the world where it feels like we\u2019re playing five super regionals in a row.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n Auburn continues its eight-game road trip with a midweek matchup at UAB (28-19, 12-9 AAC) at Regions Field Tuesday at 6 p.m. before traveling to No. 9 Mississippi State (36-12, 14-10 SEC) next weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COLLEGE STATION, Texas \u2013\u00a0No. 6 Auburn scored two runs in the ninth inning and had the bases loaded…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-277781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}