The top-ranked Arkansas baseball team could not hold a four-run lead and had a 15-game win streak snapped Saturday at No. 24 Auburn.
A six-run sixth inning lifted the Tigers to an 8-6 victory in front of a record attendance of 5,087 at Plainsman Park.
Auburn (15-8, 1-5 SEC) avoided a second consecutive series sweep to open conference play.
"It’s a tough loss," Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. "We let a lead slip away and it’s tough to recover when you give up six in one inning."
The Razorbacks (19-3, 5-1) lost for the first time since a 2-1 decision in 14 innings against Oklahoma State on Feb. 24 in Arlington, Texas. The 15-game win streak was three shy of the program record of 18 set in 1996.
"That’s the No. 1 team over there and it’s a heck of a program," Auburn first baseman Cooper McMurray said on the Tigers' postgame radio show after he recorded 4 RBI and hit the go-ahead home run in the sixth. "Hopefully this momentum will take us into next week [against No. 6 Texas A&M]."
Arkansas’ bullpen was uncharacteristically shaky as the Tigers mounted their comeback. Auburn scored its six runs against relievers Cooper Dossett, Gabe Gaeckle and Colin Fisher, who had a combined 2.43 ERA and 0.90 WHIP in 33 1/3 innings coming into the game.
In 94 innings prior to Saturday, the Razorbacks’ bullpen ranked first nationally with a 1.06 WHIP and was second to Washington with a 2.87 ERA.
Mason Maners’ solo home run to lead off the bottom of the sixth was the first hit allowed this year by the sophomore right-hander Dossett. Gaeckle, a freshman right-hander, allowed an inherited runner to score for the first time after stranding 10 inherited runners to begin the season.
Gaeckle and Dossett were pitching for the second time during the series. Gaeckle earned a 1-inning save during a 1-0 victory Thursday and Dossett earned the win in 1 1/3 innings Friday when the Razorbacks won 6-5.
Gaeckle struggled with command. He did not record an out, allowed a double and walked two.
Fisher inherited the bases loaded with no outs and gave up the inning’s big swing, a three-run opposite-field homer by McMurray with two outs. That turned a 5-4 deficit into a 7-5 lead for the Tigers.
"I thought Fisher came into a tough situation," Van Horn said. "He just gave up a fly ball and it turned into a three-run homer and was kind of a tough-luck pitcher on that swing."
It was the ninth home run for McMurray, who is Auburn’s top power hitter.
"We just knocked the door down," Auburn coach Butch Thompson said on the Tigers' postgame radio show. "We went six games without a big inning, which we quantify as three runs or more.
"McMurray really had a tough two days [against Arkansas] but he really carried us for 10 days before that. To see him at the end of the series have a couple of big at-bats — he had a hit early and the backside home run knocked the door down and created the big six-run inning, and that was huge to the outcome of the ballgame.”
Arkansas looked like it might tie the game quickly in the top of the seventh inning. Will Edmunson’s one-out RBI double scored Hudson White (leadoff single) to cut the deficit to 7-6.
That gave the Razorbacks runners at second and third with one out, but they could not get the tying run home. Jared Sprague-Lott tried to go home on a ball hit to pitcher Parker Carlson and was thrown out at home plate, and Peyton Stovall struck out looking at a 2-2 pitch away.
"That was a chance for us to really maybe gut punch them a little bit after they score six and take the lead," Van Horn said. "At a minimum we should have tied it there and we didn't."
Ike Irish hit a two-out solo homer against Fisher in the bottom of the eighth inning to extend the Tigers’ lead to 8-6.
Fisher pitched 2 2/3 innings.
"He gave us a chance to get back in it," Van Horn said.
Auburn reliever Will Cannon recorded his first save with scoreless eighth and ninth innings. Cannon's only blemish was a two-out walk in the eighth.
"We finally got a meaningful game in Will Cannon’s hands and he took us to the finish line today," Thompson said.
Neither team scored until Sprague-Lott sparked a four-run fourth with a three-run home run to center field to give Arkansas a 3-0 lead. Kendall Diggs had an RBI double in the fourth and an RBI triple in the fifth to push the Razorbacks’ lead to 5-1.
Arkansas had 10 hits but stranded 11 base runners. The Razorbacks went 7 for 23 with runners on base but just 3 for 12 with runners in scoring position.
"We had plenty of chances to score today," Van Horn said. "We left a lot of runners on. We are swinging the bats better, in my opinion. We did swing at too many pitches out of the zone. We’ve got to clean that up a little bit before [next] week. Too many little missed opportunities to get two [runs] here, one there."
Mason Molina allowed 1 run, 3 hits and 4 walks with 4 strikeouts in a 5-inning start that resulted in a no-decision. Molina threw 44 of 74 pitches for strikes.
Auburn starter Joseph Gonzalez allowed 4 runs, 5 hits and 2 walks and struck out 3 in 3 2/3 innings.
Auburn relievers Carson Myers and Carlson each allowed a run in 1 2/3 innings of relief.
"Credit to Auburn," Van Horn said. "They fought back after we had them on the ropes."
Why Arkansas lost
A couple of recycled relievers did not have the same stuff as earlier in the series and the Razorbacks came up empty handed in some situations with runners at third base.
Player of the Game: Auburn 1B Cooper McMurray
The Tigers' top hitter had an RBI single in the fourth inning to cut into Arkansas' 4-0 lead, and his three-run homer in the sixth put the Tigers' ahead 7-5.
McMurray finished 2 for 3 with 4 RBI and drew a walk Saturday. He was a combined 0 for 7 with a walk in the first two games of the series.
Poll impact
Expect the Razorbacks to remain atop the USA Today Baseball Coaches Poll that updates Monday.
A road series victory over a ranked opponent is no small feat, especially when one of the wins occurred without the head coach in the dugout.
"We were real close to sweeping them in their own park, but we didn't," Van Horn said. "But we could have."
Despite a 1-5 SEC record, Auburn should remain in the poll for another week. The Tigers went 2-2 and their only losses were by one run apiece to the No. 1 team.
"That’s the hardest 2-2 week I’ve ever been a part of with 3 one-run games and a two-run game today," Thompson said.
Up next
Arkansas will return home to play Arkansas-Little Rock on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at Baum-Walker Stadium.
That begins a 10-game homestand for the Razorbacks, who host No. 4 LSU for a conference series that begins Thursday.