BILOXI, Miss. — On a night before the storms were supposed to roll in towards the southeastern portion of the United States, the Auburn Tigers were stormed by the Mississippi State Bulldogs in fall exhibition action.
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Auburn dropped both ends of a doubleheader to Mississippi State on Thursday night in Biloxi, Mississippi, falling 1-0 and 6-2 in a pair of six-inning contests.
The Tigers saw eight arms take the mound between the two games, getting action from Andreas Alvarez, LJ Cormier, Jackson Sanders, Jake Marciano, Corey Kling, Dane Burns, Zach Stevens and Griffin Graves.
The action in game one to open up the night was short-lived, as the first inning seemed to hold all the fireworks.
Chase Fralick and Ethin Bingaman notched back-to-back walks to get things started for Auburn, who eventually got the bases loaded in the top of the first. However, with two outs, Taylor Belza grounded out to first base, and the Tigers did not scratch a run across.
That came back to bite Butch Thompson’s squad in the bottom half of the frame, as Alvarez took the bump to start the game and Jake Souders launched a lead-off home run to right field on the third pitch he saw, making it 1-0 Bulldogs.
Auburn stranded one man on base in the top of the second inning, and after Mississippi State got two on in the bottom half, Alvarez got out of the jam and kept the Tigers’ deficit at bay.
Each pitching staff seemed to hold the other team well after the first two innings of play, and the action flew by, ultimately ending up in the 1-0 win for the boys from Starkville.
The second game of the night followed the same formula at the beginning, but this time, it was Auburn who got the upper hand to get things rocking.
To lead off the top of the first in game two, Mason McCraine stroked a deep line drive just over the fence in right field, giving the Tigers a 1-0 lead in similar fashion.
A couple of batters later, with Eddie Madrigal standing on second base, Brandon McCraine drives a ball into left-center field with two outs to score him and extend things to 2-0.
Mason McCraine followed his home run up in the bottom half of the first inning when a ball was hit to him in right field, and as the runner was trying to stretch his single into a double, McCraine fired the ball to second on a line in time for the out, leaving the bases empty.
Auburn threatened to score again in the second inning with bases loaded and two outs off of singles from Ryne Farber and John Beverley and a walk from Deacon Nelson. However, on a wild pitch, Farber attempted to steal home but was tagged out at the plate, leaving the bases juiced and adding no runs to the board.
Errors then began to show up in the bottom of the second, as on a ball hit by Michael Hanna to third, an error on the throw to first allowed Harlin Hovater to come all the way home from second base to make it a 2-1 game.
Then, after an error in the bottom of the third put runners on the corners for the Bulldogs with two outs, Brady Christman launched a three-run home run into right-center field to give Mississippi State the lead at 4-2.
The bottom of the fourth did not get much better, as with runners on first and second and two outs, Peyton Firgens hit a blooper into shallow left field to bring around Will Craddock, making it 5-2 Mississippi State.
The lead continued to extend in the bottom of the fifth as well. Chone James hit a ball to Beverley in center field, and a miscue on the fly allowed the ball to hit the ground and get James to third. James then proceeded to score on a wild pitch from Stevens, putting the game at 6-2.
The Tigers’ last-ditch effort saw Guy Lynam single into center and Levi Nickoli walk, but no runs resulted of it, helping give the Bulldogs the sweep in game two.
Auburn now returns home to Plainsman Park, where it will look ahead to one more exhibition game against the UAB Blazers on Friday, Nov. 6.
Saturday’s scheduled exhibition against the Florida State Seminoles in Pensacola, Florida was canceled due to the threat of inclement weather heading near the Florida Panhandle.
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