Auburn Baseball vs Texas A&M Series Recap

The whole series seemed to be a constant back-and-forth. Most of the time it was Texas A&M on top, and that was the issue with the weekend. The Aggies would jump up, and Auburn's bats would answer. Late inning issues doomed the Tigers Friday and Saturday nights, just as they did all the way back in the first weekend of the season against Sacramento State.

Saturday, Game 1 (12-8 Loss)

Friday's game was postponed due to weather and pushed to Saturday, where the Tigers and the Aggies would play a double-header. The back-and-forth began in this game when Texas A&M scored runs in the 1st and 2nd inning. Auburn got one back in the 3rd, but the Aggies got 3 in the 4th. Auburn's bats came alive in the bottom of the 4th, where a series of singles led to 5 runs and a 1 run lead. TAMU added 3 in the sixth for a 2 run lead. The Tigers got a run in the 6th and 7th to tie again at 8. That's where things fell apart, though, as the Aggies rocked Auburn reliever Marc Frazier for 4 runs in the Top of the 9th. Auburn couldn't respond, and the Aggies came away with the win.

Saturday, Game 2 (9-7 Win)

It looked like the Aggies would pick right back up where they left off in the first inning of Game 2, when they scored 4 runs. Auburn answered, though, with four runs of their own thanks to some lead-off hits by Anfernee Grier and Josh Palacios. Daniel Robert picked up 3 RBIs in this one, Niko Buentello garnered his 31st RBI of the year, and the Tigers picked up 17 total hits over the course of 8 innings of plate appearances to score 9 runs and win the game 9-7.

Freshman Casey Mize came out after 2 innings and 6 runs. Gabe Klobosits came on in relief and threw a fantastic 6 innings, allowing only five hits and 1 run. It got a little shaky in the 9th, but he managed to hold on and finish the game off.

Sunday (12-10 Loss)

Texas A&M once more got a first inning run in Sunday's game. Auburn answered back in the 3rd with a 3-run shot from Anfernee Grier over the Green Monster. That hit extended his hit streak to every game so far this season. Unfortunately, the Aggies answered back with an 8-run 4th inning.

Auburn slowly chipped away at the Aggie lead, though. First with a 2-run triple by Josh Palacios in the 5th to cut the lead to 9-5. Then in the 6th inning Niko Buentello and Daniel Robert both went yard to cut the lead to 9-7. The Aggies added 3 more in the 8th to seal the deal. Auburn added 2 runs in the 8th and 1 in the 9th, but those 3 weren't enough to extended the game.

Series Notes

Texas A&M came into this game having only lost a single game. Their pitching staff is one of the best in the conference. Auburn tuned them up for 27 runs on 38 hits. That should be enough to win pretty much any series they'll play. It was the most Auburn has scored in an SEC series since 2012. The Aggies' hitters were better, though. They scored 31 runs on 44 hits.

Still, though, it impressed Kendall Rogers with D1Baseball.com.

Boy, the #Auburn #TAMU series was a wild one. No. 3 #Aggies scored 31 runs, recorded 44 hits in the road series win. #AU showed me something

— Kendall Rogers (@KendallRogersD1) March 20, 2016

There are definite good things to take away from this game. Auburn scored runs. A lot of them. The Tigers were getting production out of a number of players in the batting order. Grier, Palacios (who extended his streak of reaching base to go along with Grier's hit streak), Jordan Ebert, Kyler Deese, Daniel Robert, Niko Buentello, Cody Nulph, that's seven Tigers who managed to do a good bit of damage with their bats at some point over the weekend. If they can keep that going, Auburn has a chance to steal a few series against the top of the SEC. The Aggies are about as good as they get, and the Tigers were just a few plays from taking the series, themselves.

Auburn returns to action Tuesday evening against Alabama State before traveling to Arkansas next weekend. The Razorbacks were swept by South Carolina this weekend, so it is a very winnable series for Auburn. I would go so far as to label it a must-win given the toughness of the SEC schedule.