Tigers strike back, win in Gainesville
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Auburn’s baseball team got a number of clutch performances from freshmen with its season on the line at Florida.
And one huge hit from a fifth-year senior.
Luke Jarvis’s RBI single in the bottom of the ninth inning gave the Tigers a 3-2 victory over the top-seeded Gators in their best-of-three super regional Sunday. It set up a decisive game tonight between the Southeastern Conference programs, with the winner advancing to the College World Series.
Florida (46-19), the 2017 national champion, hasn’t lost consecutive games at home since April 2017.
“I’m happy to have one more day to fight,” Tigers coach Butch Thompson said.
Tanner Burns and Cody Greenhill, two freshman All-America pitchers, held the Gators in check throughout the day. Burns gave up five hits and an earned run in six innings, and Greenhill (6-2) surrendered a solo home run over the final three frames.
Another freshman, Steven Williams, tied the game in the fourth with his 12th homer and tracked down a ball in the gap that surely would have been a double in the third.
“I think this is a bag of experience that these guys can take with them,” Thompson said.
All of those guys will return next year, giving Auburn (43-22)
plenty of hope for the future. Jarvis, though, was down to his final few outs.
He was hitless in seven at-bats in the series before coming through and giving the Tigers at least another day.
Brendan Venter got things started in the ninth with a lead-off walk off reliever Jordan Butler (6-2). He moved to second on Jay Estes’ single, then gave way to pinch-runner Cade Evans. Jarvis drove the first pitch into left-center field, easily scoring Evans.
“Pandemonium,” Jarvis said. “That’s as cool as it gets like from a feelings perspective playing this game. You’re not hitting the ball well, and sure enough you come up in kind of a big situation, and all you’ve got to do is put the ball in play. It sounds a lot tougher when you’re in there.”
Florida’s Austin Langworthy homered to start the ninth off Greenhill, creating the need for heroics.
› Texas 4, Tennessee Tech 2 AUSTIN, Texas — All-America second baseman Kody Clemens drove in two runs, one with his 23rd home run of the season, as the Longhorns (4121) evened their super regional and forced today’s decisive third game.
Texas starter Chase Shugart (6-3) allowed just one run and two hits, though he walked five batters before leaving after six innings.
Clemens — the son of former Texas star and MLB pitcher Roger Clemens is a finalist for national player of the year awards — lined a double to right-center field to drive in a run in the first. Ryan Reynolds hit a bloop opposite-field double to left that gave Texas a 2-0 lead in the second inning.
Tennessee Tech (53-11), which leads the nation in batting average and home runs this season, produced just three hits and has one homer in two games in Austin.
Designated the home team Sunday, the Golden Eagles cut the deficit in half in the second with a single, a walk and a throwing error by Clemens as he tried to complete a double play.
Clemens didn’t take long to atone; he slugged a solo home run off losing pitcher Travis Moths (13-3) with one out in the third for a 3-1 lead. Tate Shaw had an RBI single in the seventh inning.
Tennessee Tech’s David Garza hit his 17th home run of the season, connecting against Blair Henley in the seventh.
› South Carolina 8, Arkansas 5 FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — L.T. Tolbert hit a grand slam to help the Gamecocks keep their season alive by evening a super regional pitting SEC programs.
Tolbert’s homer highlighted a five-run fifth inning for the Gamecocks (37-25), who will face the host Razorbacks (4319) in a deciding third game today with a CWS berth at stake.
Justin Row and Hunter Taylor each added home runs for South Carolina, and Carlos Cortes had three hits in the win. Cody Morris (9-3) was the winning pitcher after allowing only one unearned run in five innings.
Heston Kjerstad and Carson Shaddy had home runs for the Razorbacks, who never led Sunday.
› Duke 11,
Texas Tech 2 LUBBOCK, Texas — Max Miller drove in four runs as Duke avoided elimination again by forcing a deciding third game in its super regional.
Texas Tech (43-18) is trying to get to the CWS for the third time in five seasons; Duke’s last appearance was in 1961.
The Blue Devils (45-17) had to win four consecutive games to win the regional hosted by Georgia after losing their opener in Athens. They started their first-ever super regional with a 6-4 loss Saturday.
Duke lefty Graeme Stinson (5-1) threw seven scoreless innings with six strikeouts on Sunday.