MONTGOMERY — Auburn’s slugger-heavy lineup won’t bail out the bullpen every night.

For now, though, it certainly makes for exciting baseball.

The 50/50 crowd of 7,489 Auburn and Alabama fans — the second-most in Riverwalk Stadium history — can certainly attest.

Moments after a long-standing, three-run lead was wiped away by another rough go from the Auburn bullpen, the Tigers rallied for two runs in the top of the ninth to walk away with an 8-7 victory over their biggest rival in the Max Capital City Classic.

“(The crowd) was far greater than I anticipated,” Auburn coach John Pawlowski said. “I think the city of Montgomery went over and beyond to put this event on.

“That was just a great ballgame from both teams.”

The packed house, which was filled by Auburn fans, Alabama fans and your everyday baseball fans, definitely got its money’s worth, as the game went well over three hours. And that was before the postgame trophy ceremony and fireworks spectacular.

“This was great,” Pawlowski said. “Far greater than what I anticipated. What a tremendous thing it was.”

The ending mimicked Pawlowski’s enthusiasm.

Freshman Zach Blatt — coming in relief of Taylor Thompson, who surrendered a go-ahead, two-run home run to Jake Smith — retired the six batters he faced in order to pick up his first collegiate victory. He punctuated the outing with a game-ending strikeout, which brought the entire Auburn bench out to the mound for quite the celebration in a game that does not count toward either teams’ conference record.

“I was pumped,” said Blatt, a former Opelika High pitcher. “It’s been a dream of mine to beat Bama my entire life.”

Blatt’s exclamation point on a raucous night from start to finish was set up by yet another power surge from the Auburn lineup.

With Auburn trailing 7-6 heading into its final at-bats, Casey McElroy, last week’s SEC freshman of the week, made a dramatic ending instantly inevitable with a leadoff triple deep off the centerfield wall. Justin Hargett brought pinch-runner Bradley Ray home with a sacrifice fly in the next at-bat against Alabama’s Jimmy Nelson, who took the loss.

Trent Mummey followed with a double down the left-field line and rightfielder Ben Jones brought him home as the winning run with a two-out, opposite-field double.

“I was just trying to stay back and fortunately I made good contact with it,” said Jones, who was named the game’s MVP after his 3-for-5 night. “I wasn’t sure if I got enough of it, and I was so happy when I saw it go over his head for a double.”

Jones must have been too focused on his strides around first. Most observers thought it was a home run, as the ball caromed off a bunting hanging on the guardrails atop the left-field wall.

“It’s great to see a senior who has stepped up,” Pawlowski said of Jones, the only senior in Auburn’s lineup. “He’s been waiting for his opportunity to play every day and he’s certainly taken advantage of it.

“He’s had some huge at-bats for us, none more than this big one here in the ninth tonight.”

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