HOOVER — His coach had a feeling that he was “maxing out,” and he wasn’t too overconfident to believe his stuff was as sharp as it had been nearly an hour earlier.

Yet there was little hesitation Thursday from Austin Hubbard when Auburn ended its half of a go-ahead 12th inning, spearheaded by Trent
Mummey’s bases-loaded, two-run single.

While the rest of the Tigers were turning their rally caps from backward to forward, Hubbard was already jogging toward the mound.

“I had one more inning every time,” Hubbard said. “I had a feeling that I was getting close to the end, but I knew they had faith in me to go out there.”

Hubbard retired South Carolina’s hitters without surrendering a run one more time in the 12th to wrap up 4 2/3 innings of gutsy, spotless pitching and send Auburn to another day of baseball. The Tigers’ 3-1 victory eliminated the third-seeded Gamecocks, set up today’s 3 p.m. matchup with Ole Miss and confirmed that the SEC’s top-slugging club can compete against one of the country’s top pitching staffs.

“So much credit has gone to the hitters and rightfully so,” coach John Pawlowski said.  “But it’s just nice to see
the pitchers that have been working so hard and to see the reward.”

That reward came in many forms for the Tigers.

First, there’s the obvious. Auburn lived to play another day and avoided a winless trip to Regions Park, picking up its 40th win of the season and, perhaps, solidifying its place as an NCAA regional host.

“We didn’t want to go two and done,” Mummey said. “We feel like we have a lot more to accomplish.”

Grant Dayton’s effort went unrewarded in his personal win column, but it only further solidified his role as Auburn’s ace. One year after a significant sophomore slump and just months after he had to pitch his way back into the Tigers’ starting rotation, Dayton matched South
Carolina’s Blake Cooper, a first-team All-SEC selection, pitch for pitch.

Backed only by Creede Simpson’s solo home run in the fourth inning, Dayton kept the Gamecocks scoreless until the seventh, when he surrendered a game-tying solo home run to Brady Thomas. He left after putting a runner on base in the eighth, finishing his day after an efficient
7 1/3 innings in which he struck out four, walked two and recorded 13 flyball outs.

“I was able to go out there and just pitch like I know I can,” Dayton said. “It was a lot of fun to be a part of that, and then I came out and watched Hub come in and just fill the strike zone.”

He filled the strike zone, all right, but he also filled Pawlowski up with tension inning after inning.

Only once, a 1-2-3 ninth, did Hubbard work an inning where South Carolina failed to put at least one runner in scoring position before Mummey’s go-ahead single in the 12th.

“When teams start putting guys on base, it’s tough to be in the dugout, it’s tough to continually watch that,” Pawlowski said. “When you have a guy out there like Hubbard, he’s probably one of the most mentally tough pitchers we have on the team.”

He rescued Dayton in the eighth, entering with a runner on second and one out and ultimately striking out Adrian Morales to end the threat.

In the 10th, he put runners on first and second with one out, had them move to second and third on a groundout and then, after two balls,
intentionally walked Jeffrey Jones to load the bases. That particular threat ended when Morales sent a harmless tapper back to Hubbard for the
final out.

And in the 11th, Hubbard allowed a leadoff single to Adam Matthews and moved him to second on a wild pitch. That’s where he’d stay, though, as Hubbard struck out Thomas, forced Bobby Haney to fly out and then made a nice defensive play on Scott Wingo’s bunt-single attempt.

“The key to what me and Grant did today was we made our pitches all day,” Hubbard said. “We weren’t making hitters’ pitchers and we came out on the good side.”

The 12th was a relative breeze for Hubbard, especially after the bats behind him capitalized on a costly error by Wingo, which put Justin Hargett on first and Casey McElroy on second with one out. Justin Fradejas followed with a walk before Mummey smacked the game-winning single up the middle off Gamecocks reliever Matt Price.

The long-overdue runs prompted Pawlowski to stick with Hubbard instead of plucking a fresh arm out of the bullpen.

“I asked him how he felt, and he said he felt fine,” Pawlowski said. “He wanted to finish it.”

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