OMAHA, Neb. — It took half of the game, but Auburn finally got the big hit it needed to keep its season alive Monday afternoon.
After a bases-loaded walk got them on the board, Cole Foster gave the Tigers their first lead of the College World Series with a bases-clearing double and they cruised to a 6-2 win over No. 2 Stanford.
While Auburn moves on to another elimination game against the loser of Monday night’s Arkansas-Ole Miss game, the Cardinal’s season is now over. They were the the highest-seeded team to make it to Omaha, but now joins No. 9 Texas as the two teams who went 0-2.
Stanford jumped out to an early 2-0 lead thanks to RBI doubles by Brett Barrera and Adam Crampton in the first and second innings, respectively.
It remained that score for several innings until the sixth. The Cardinal had ace reliever Quinn Mathews on the mound when Auburn used a pair of singles and a hit by pitch to load the bases with one out.
Bobby Peirce battled back from a 1-2 count to draw a walk that cut the Tigers’ deficit in half before Mathews struck out Brooks Carlson to get within an out of ending the inning. With two outs, Foster smacked a 1-1 pitch off the top of the wall in left-center.
That brought in all three runners to give Auburn a 4-2 lead, but it wasn’t done. In the seventh, Brody Moore tacked on a sacrifice fly and Peirce added an RBI double.
The Cardinal did bring the tying run to the plate by loading the bases in the bottom of the seventh, but the Tigers called upon closer Blake Burkhalter and he struck out Barrera to strand them. He then pitched the final 2 1/3 innings to earn his 16th save of the season.
Auburn now awaits the loser of the Arkansas-Ole Miss game, with the elimination game scheduled for 6 p.m. CT Tuesday on ESPN. The Tigers lost home series to both of those teams during the regular season.
