At this point in the season, style points don’t have much meaning for Auburn.

So any win, even an eked-out affair over one of the bottom 10 teams in the RPI standings, serves its purpose in getting the Tigers further on the right side of the .500 win percentage cutoff for inclusion in the NCAA Tournament.

As the saying goes, a win’s a win, even when Auburn (No. 23 in the RPI) squeaks one out against Alabama State (No. 294), 7-5, at its home field like it did Wednesday night.

“It wasn’t pretty, but that really doesn’t matter,” senior second baseman Justin Hargett said. “At the end of the day, if we have a ‘W,’
that’s all that matters.

“Right now, we’re fighting and clawing for some wins.”

Auburn (26-23) looked primed to bust the game open early against Alabama State (14-27) starter Trent Popp, who had the build of an offensive lineman and a knuckleball that topped out in the high 50s.

The Tigers loaded the bases against Popp in the first, but stranded them all. They finally broke through in the second on a Justin Fradejas sacrifice fly and a two-run home run by Dan Gamache.

“It’s hard to adjust to, especially coming off an SEC weekend where you’ve got guys throwing in the 90s,” Hargett said. “You face a guy like that, who’s got a good knuckleball pitch, it definitely kept us off-balance for awhile. But we got some hits here and there.”

Auburn tacked on a run each in the third and fourth on RBI singles by Cullen Wacker and Creede Simpson to take a 5-1 lead.

But the Tigers also left eight on base through the first four innings, setting up a theme for the night.

Auburn stranded 16 runners against Hornets pitching, including leaving the bases loaded in the sixth as the visitors were making their comeback.

“You can’t leave that many guys on base and win,” senior first baseman Kevin Patterson said. “If we do that this weekend (against Alabama), it’s going to be a long weekend.”

Alabama State plated a run on an error in the sixth, then scored two more on a bloop single by Ron James Jr. in the seventh to cut the lead to 5-4.

Auburn answered with an RBI single by Patterson, who finished 4-for-5 with a double, to push its lead back to two, but the Hornets pulled within one again on a single and an error that scored Josue Quinones in the top of the eighth.

They even had the tying run reach third before a fly out ended the threat.

After Wacker scored on a wild pitch to make it 7-5 in the eighth, the Hornets brought the tying run to the plate with two out in the ninth, but reliever Zach Blatt forced a pop out to end it.

“What a game,” head coach John Pawlowski said. “We expected nothing more than a great challenge tonight, and it certainly was.

“We were very fortunate tonight.”

Andrew Morris (2-3) gave up three earned runs on five hits and struck out a career-high eight batters over 6 2/3 innings to get the win, and Blatt gave up a run over the final 2 1/3 for his third save of the year.

Fradejas, Gamacher, Wacker and Tony Caldwell logged two hits for the Tigers, and James turned in a 3-for-5 night for the visitors.

Auburn heads into a crucial weekend series against rival Alabama coming off of one of its most unexpectedly taxing wins of the year.

But a win’s a win.

“Nothing’s come easy to the Auburn Tigers this year,” Pawlowski said. “Every game’s been a challenge, every team we’ve faced. I never go into a game thinking it’s going to be easy, because it isn’t.

“It just shows you you’ve got to compete and be ready to play. I thought our guys did tonight.”