Observations: Auburn baseball rallies to win critical series at Florida

After dropping the opener, the Tigers got something from everybody in order to take down the Gators — culminating in a wild Saturday finish.

(Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)

When crossing over the Continental Divide, taking on water is inevitable. But, no matter what happens, the boat cannot sink.

Auburn’s boat took on quite a bit of murky water over the weekend in Gainesville, as it lost both Logan Gregorio and Chase Fralick early in the second game after already being down leadoff man Bristol Carter.

And, in Game 3, the Tigers faced a 3-0 deficit in the first inning.

The Tigers never swamped, though. They hung on for a 5-3 win Friday night before rallying for an 8-5 win on Saturday to win the weekend series at No. 7 Florida.

“It shows a lot of heart, it shows a lot of grit,” head coach Butch Thompson said of his team’s series win in Gainesville. “Being able to come back after a loss and coming back day two, day three, and winning the series on the road is huge in this league. Huge credit to our offense, to our pitching staff.”

Following a 6-3 loss in Game 1 that saw starting pitcher Andreas Alvarez give up four earned runs in just 2.2 innings, Gregorio — Auburn’s designated hitter — grabbed at his hip during his first at-bat of the game. He immediately came out of the game and was replaced by Lucas Steele.

Thompson later said Auburn thinks it’s an oblique injury and added that he wasn’t moving around well, to the point where his teammates were having to grab his bags for him. He did not play on Saturday, and his status is currently up in the air.

Two innings later, Fralick was hit in the elbow during an at-bat and tried to give it a go defensively the next inning. The catcher took himself out after throwing down to second base. He was able to DH on in the finale on Saturday, though.

Fralick’s injury, combined with Steele already being in at DH, meant Taylor Belza — who had only appeared in seven games all season to that point — saw action behind the plate for just the third time all year.

The lack of continuity showed a bit between him and starter Jake Marciano at first Friday, as the Tigers gave up two runs in that third inning and another in the fourth. But, after that point, Jackson Sanders and Ryan Hetzler combined to shut out Florida for the remainder of the game.

“Proud as heck of Belza, back there competing,” Sanders said postgame. “Hadn’t been back there much, got back there on the fly. He really fit in well back there. He grew as the game went on.”

Auburn’s offense, behind power hitting from Mason McCraine and Ethin Bingaman, combined with some Florida fielding woes, was able to rally for the win to set up a rubber game Saturday morning.

“I did like the resolve and fight today,” Thompson said following Friday’s win. “A lot of things went against us there, but I do think it created a tipping point, and the guys did great with it.”

The following game saw Auburn fall into a hole quickly, as starter Alex Petrovic gave up a three-run home run in the first inning. After that point, however, Petrovic tossed six more innings and didn’t allow a single run.

All the while, Auburn’s offense slowly chipped away at the lead before Bub Terrell, who was in a slump and had been pulled from the previous day’s game, caught hold of a cutter that didn’t drop and sent it out of Condron Field to tie the game in the eighth.

“I think the turning point for us was Petrovic,” Thompson said. “It was the fifth before we got the leadoff man on and scored those first two runs on one hit.”

From there, Auburn — once again powered by a McCraine home run — posted five runs in the ninth inning and hung on to win 8-5 to win its first series in Gainsville since 2013.

“What a huge series,” Thompson said. “This is a tough place to play, and over my 25 years one of the toughest venues to come in and grab a series, for sure.”

Now with a 10-8 conference record, the Tigers moved into a five-way tie for fourth place in the SEC standings, with one of those teams being the Gators.

Here are four observations following Auburn’s critical series win over Florida.

Mason McCraine shines at the top of the order