03/20 at 08:49 PM

Auburn right fielder Justin Fradejas told teammates before Sunday’s series finale against Arkansas that he was going to throw a runner out at home.

In that sense, it wasn’t much different from any other game day.

“Pretty much every day I say I’m going to try to throw somebody out at the plate,” Fradejas said. “They kind of get on me sometimes for missing (cutoffs), but I guess I’ve got that mentality sometimes, where I want to get that guy out at the plate if I’m able to get him out.”

Fradejas made good on his promise in a most dramatic fashion Sunday, nailing the potential tying run at the plate to give the Tigers two outs in the ninth.

Ethan Wallen made it stick, forcing a groundout to close out an 8-7 Auburn win that gave it a series win over the No. 9 Razorbacks in the opening weekend of SEC play.

The 24th-ranked Tigers (14-6, 2-1 SEC) entered the ninth up 8-5 after a four-run eighth, but an RBI single by Kyle Robinson brought Arkansas (15-4, 1-2) within two runs with one out and the bases loaded.

Dominic Ficociello, who finished the day 4-for-5 with three RBI, rapped a single to right to score Jacob Morris and put Arkansas down one.

But Fradejas came up gunning for trailing runner Matt Reynolds.

“I knew he was the tying runner, so I just wanted to make a good throw,” Fradejas. “Awesome that (catcher) Tony (Caldwell) held onto the ball. It’s always tough when you’ve got a runner coming in there.”

Caldwell said he slow-played the throw, trying to convince Reynolds it wasn’t going to be a close play at the plate by acting nonchalantly.

That didn’t stop Reynolds from sliding hard into Caldwell’s leg to try and break up the play. But Caldwell wasn’t letting go.

“I had a death grip on that ball,” Caldwell said. “It was coming out a little bit, but I just stuck it back in the glove.”

Fradejas’ throw provided a wild climax to a fairly wild game.

Auburn led 4-1 through six innings, thanks to another solid outing from starter Derek Varnadore and two RBI from shortstop Casey McElroy, one coming in the third on his fourth home run of the year.

Varnadore started tiring in the seventh, giving up a Sam Bates double and an RBI single to James McCann to lead off the inning, and reliever Zach Blatt escaped the frame with only one more run crossing the plate, cutting the Tigers’ lead to 4-3.

Blatt wasn’t so fortunate in the eighth, as the Razorbacks plated the tying and go-ahead runs on a two-run single by Ficociello.

The Tigers answered right back, loading the bases with one out on a hit batsman and two walks.

Their big hit came from a familiar source: McElroy, who bounced a seeing-eye single through the right side on a 1-2 pitch to score Bobby Andrews and Justin Hargett and put Auburn up 6-5.

McElroy finished the game 3-for-4 with four RBI. The junior is in the midst of a 15-game hitting streak in which he is batting .468 (29-for-62) with four home runs and 18 RBI.

“My last at-bat, I was just trying to put the ball in play, get one run in,” McElroy said. “The way things have been going this weekend, it had eyes and found its way through the infield.”

Dan Gamache and Caldwell followed up with RBI singles to give the Tigers an 8-5 lead heading into the ninth.

They would need all of it.

“Twenty-seven outs are tough to get in college baseball,” Auburn coach John Pawlowski said. “Doesn’t matter who you’re playing or where you’re playing. The games are never over.”

Hargett and Creede Simpson were each 2-for-4 for the Tigers, and Robinson and Bigham each had two hits for Arkansas.

Wallen (1-2) picked up the win after pitching 4 2/3 innings of effective relief but being saddled with the loss Friday, and Arkansas’ Nolan Sanburn (1-1) took the loss.

Fradejas picked up the timely assist.

“It was perfect. It was dead on,” McElroy said. “Couldn’t have come at a better time.”
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