OMAHA, Neb. – Drew Campbell used all his tools on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Campbell had a diving catch in right and threw a runner out at the plate. He walked and scored in a three-run fourth, and added an RBI single in the eighth, as No. 7 Louisville edged Auburn 5-3 in an elimination game in the 2019 College World Series at TD Ameritrade Park.
The Cardinals (50-17) will meet the loser of the Vanderbilt-Mississippi State game on Thursday at 7 p.m. CT in an elimination contest. The Tigers end their season at 38-28.
“It was a hard-fought game,” UL head coach Dan McDonnell said. “I’m really proud of our guys because I thought our bullpen did what we needed them to do. Offensively we’ve put together some rallies. We’re close. We haven’t exploded yet; that’s the exciting thing. But we played defense, and when you pitch and you make some plays the way we did, some diving plays in the outfield, some great plays in the infield — we played well enough to win. And as I’ve learned, it’s not easy winning out here, and they don’t give you anything. You’ve got to earn it. So I’m really proud of these guys right here and their teammates for how hard they fought.”
The game began at 1 p.m. CT on Tuesday, and UL started the scoring in the top of the first as Tyler Fitzgerald belted a homer to left, his eighth of the season.
“I think it was really, really important,” Fitzgerald said of the Cards getting the early lead. “It’s something I wanted to do as a 3-hole hitter, get our lineup started early, and something I wasn’t able to do the game before. So to get the momentum in our favor, top of the first inning, was huge for us and set the tone early on.”
AU would tie the game in the bottom of the second. On the 10th pitch of his at-bat, Edouard Julien singled to center. He moved to third on a double to right by Matt Scheffler and scored on a groundout by Kason Howell to make it a 1-1 contest.
The Tigers tried to break the tie in the third. Will Holland had a two-out single, stole second, and attempted to score on a single to right by Steven Williams. Campbell made a strong throw to the plate and nailed Holland to end the inning.
The Cards took the lead in the top of the fourth. With rain starting to fall, Alex Binelas had a leadoff single and moved to second when Jake Snider walked. Danny Oriente sacrificed both runners into scoring position. Campbell walked and a walk to Justin Lavey forced in the tie-breaking run. With two away, a bouncer to second was mishandled by Ryan Bliss, allowing Snider and Campbell to come in for a 4-1 UL lead.
The Tigers had a runner on first with two away in the bottom of the fourth when Campbell made a diving catch of a sinking liner end the inning.
“I think defense has brought us a long way this year,” Campbell said. Last year we did pretty good defensively, and I think this year we definitely stepped it up, and it’s been a huge part of why we are where we are.”
The game was halted at that point due to the rain and resumed on Wednesday morning at 11 a.m. CT.
Auburn cut into the lead in the bottom of the seventh. Ryan Bliss had a two-out single to center and Conor Davis pounded a double into right center to drive in Bliss and make it a 4-2 game.
UL responded in the top of the eighth. Snider drew a leadoff walk and moved to third when Oriente had a hit-and-run single over the second base bag that split the diving middle infielders. Campbell singled to left to bring home Snider and make it 5-2.
The Auburn defense kept it a three-run difference. Scheffler, the catcher, made a diving catch of a bunt attempt in foul territory for the first out. Ryan Watson took over in relief and promptly picked off pinch-runner Trey Leonard at second. Watson fanned Henry Davis to end the frame.
The Tigers missed a scoring opportunity in the eighth. Julien, Scheffler and Kason Howell had two-out singles to load the bases. Michael McAvene struck out Judd Ward to end the threat.
Auburn made some noise in the ninth. Davis had his third straight extra base hit, a homer to center, with one away to make it a 5-3 contest. Williams sent a double into the right field corner with two away to bring the tying run to the plate. Closer Michael Kirian struck out Rankin Woley to end the game.
UL used four arms to record the win. Bobby Miller (5 H, R, 2 BB, 3 K) hurled the four innings on Tuesday. Adam Elliott (3-2) allowed one hit and one walk in two frames with three punchouts in picking up the win. McAvene (5 H, R, BB, 3 K) worked two innings before Kirian pitched the ninth for his fifth save.
“Hate that it ends today,” AU skipper Butch Thompson said. “Right up to the end, you could see that our guys are pretty resilient and continued to fight. I’m proud of that.”
Davis finished with two doubles and a homer, while Julian reached four times with two hits and two walks for the Tigers, who had 13 hits and stranded 12 runners. Leading off an inning, Auburn was 0-8 with one walk and five strikeouts.