After dropping last night’s game in the late stages and falling behind 3-0 in the early stages today, No. 11 Auburn scored eight unanswered runs to defeat No. 15 Arkansas, 8-3, and claim the series Saturday afternoon at Plainsman Park.

The series win marks Auburn’s first against the Razorbacks since 2017 and is the program’s 13th regular season home series win in the last 14 chances.

“The four starters have done so good the entire year, and all three starters were great this series,” Auburn coach Butch Thompson said. “That might’ve been as set as I’ve seen Jackson Sanders. He came out of the ‘pen, handled it masterfully and had his stuff set. Petrovic’s fourth and fifth innings were poised, masterful. Those two guys did a great job. That gave us chance. This is a team that’s trying to grow and get settled. It was a great response for our offense, only striking out two times.”

Alex Petrovic (5-1) allowed three runs on three hits and a walk in the second inning but faced the minimum in his other four innings of work to earn the win. His inning pitch counts outside of the second were five, eight, nine and 12.

Pitching in relief for the first time this season, Jackson Sanders earned his first career save with 4.0 scoreless innings. The sophomore southpaw struck out eight of the 13 batters he faced, and 38 of his 54 pitches were for strikes.

“It’s a different kind of adrenaline coming out of the pen compared to starting,” Sanders said. “I was trying to dominate the strike zone. Our hitters did a great job offensively. We tried to execute pitches the best we could, and they ended up missing them.”

After falling behind in the top of the second, Auburn answered immediately with three runs on three hits and a hit batter in the home half. Brandon McCraine got the scoring started with a two-RBI double to right center, his first of three hits and a season-high three RBI in the game.

McCraine was one of four players in the lineup with multiple hits, and the Tigers capped off the series with 20 runs on 30 hits while striking out only twice in Saturday’s finale.  

“They punched first, but we punched back,” said McCraine, who raised his average to .347. “We’ve been struggling to find gaps and seeing the ball land. It’s good for us to get back rolling again.”

After the starting pitchers combined to throw 15 pitches in the first inning, Arkansas (20-13, 5-7 SEC) loaded the bases with nobody out in the second and ultimately scored three runs on a RBI groundout and two-out, two-run single.

However, Auburn (22-9, 6-6 SEC) answered immediately, loading the bases on two singles and a hit batter before McCraine’s two-run double. Todd Clay then tied the game with a RBI groundout to second.

The offense continued as the Tigers scored in four of five innings from the second through the sixth. Ethin Bingaman delivered the go-ahead RBI double in the third, his second of two hits in the game and his fifth RBI of the series, before McCraine came back around with a two-out RBI single to right.

Bub Terrell blasted his sixth home run of the season and second of the week to extend the lead to 6-3 in the fifth.

Bristol Carter manufactured as he reached on walk, advanced on a stolen base and wild pitch, and scored on Chris Rembert’s RBI groundout. Chase Fralick then capped off the scoring in the contest and matched Terrell with his sixth homer of the year four pitches later.

Entering in relief of Petrovic to start the sixth, Sanders’ different routine didn’t affect him as six of his first seven outs were via strikeouts despite having to deal with a brief 17-minute rain delay. He ultimately faced two batters over the minimum, allowing just a hit batter in the seventh and single in the eighth.

Auburn’s homestand continues with a matchup against No. 23 Jacksonville State (26-6, 11-0 C-USA) Tuesday at 6 p.m. CT.