TROY — Logan Pierce protected Troy’s third out as fiercely as the Trojans defended their home field in a 14-6 victory over Auburn on Tuesday night.

Pierce hit a grand slam in the fifth inning, a two-run double in the fourth and an RBI single in the third — each hit with two outs — and finished the night 4-for-5 with two runs scored and seven RBI. He raised his batting average 32 points to .267.

“I was just looking for a good pitch to hit,” Pierce said of the grand slam. “He gave me one and I was just fortunate enough to get it over the fence.”

The No. 20 Trojans (23-5), avenged a 6-1 loss to the Tigers in Auburn on March 29. Since that game, Troy hasn’t lost and Auburn (15-14) hasn’t won.

“We’re going through that spell right now where we’ve got to weather the storm,” Auburn coach John Pawlowski said. “They keep working hard and have great attitudes. Success will come to this team. Hopefully, they’ll come back and have a good mindset back in conference play this weekend.”

Sophomore starter Shane McCain, who took the loss against Auburn last week, earned the victory. The lefthander pitched into the sixth inning, giving up one run but scattering nine hits.

In fact, Auburn and Troy each combined for 15 hits in the game. Both teams used five pitchers. The Trojans, of course, bunched their hits together in front of 2,011 at Riddle-Pace Field.

The Trojans scored five runs in the third and added two more in the fourth — after having nobody on and two out in both innings. They did push across a run in the fifth — on a dropped fly ball by AU center fielder Creede Simpson — before Pierce’s two-out grand slam gave Troy a 12-1 lead.

“Thirteen of our 14 runs come with two outs. What more can you ask of your team?” Troy coach Bobby Pierce, Logan’s father, said. “Not only did we get them, we got them with the extra-base variety. Hopefully, tonight will move us forward in a good direction starting to believe offensively what we’re capable of.”

Troy turned a two-out rally into a five-run outburst in the bottom of the third inning. Tiger starter Will Irvin had worked out of trouble in the first two innings and retired the first two batters. But Tyler Hannah doubled and scored on Drew Prichard’s bloop single to center. Blake Martz singled to left.

Pierce followed with a single to right that scored Prichard and moved Martz to third. The throw to second base caught Pierce in a rundown between first and second. As he ran back toward first, Martz charged home and AU second baseman Casey McElroy’s throw to the plate pulled Tony Caldwell away from the plate and the run scored. Todd McRae followed with a triple off the wall in right-center. Daniel Peterson drove him in with a base hit to make it 5-0.

Pierce’s RBI double to left-center scored two runs in the fourth.

He broke it open with a full-count grand slam in the fifth.

“They did a really good job with two outs,” Pawlowski said. “I thought that was the difference.”

“We got a lot of good balls on the bat last week, they just weren’t falling,” Pierce said. “Tonight, they fell in the right spot. That’s just baseball.”

Auburn’s Kevin Patterson hit a pinch-hit, three-run homer in the seventh inning. He stayed in the game and doubled to lead off the ninth, and scored on pinch hitter Brooks Beisner’s two-run shot in the ninth. Bobby Andrews and Dan Gamache had two hits each for the Tigers.

Martz and Adam Bryant had two hits each for Troy.

Auburn plays at Kentucky this weekend. The Trojans will host Sun Belt Conference rival Florida International for a three-game series.