05/15 at 10:56 PM

An Auburn win over Alabama on Sunday would have meant more than just the completion of a sweep over the Tigers’ biggest rival.

It, along with Arkansas’ loss to South Carolina, would have given the Tigers sole ownership of first place in the SEC West, a game clear of the fray in the rest of the division standings with only a road series against cellar dweller Tennessee still on the docket before the SEC Tournament.

But Auburn’s ninth-inning rally fell a run short against the Crimson Tide in a 7-6 loss at Plainsman Park, robbing the Tigers of their first home sweep of the season and dragging them back down into the mess that is the SEC West.

With one conference weekend to go, Auburn (28-24, 13-14 SEC) and Alabama (31-22, 13-14) find themselves in a tie for first with Arkansas and Mississippi State, a game clear of Ole Miss (12-15 SEC) and two games up on LSU (11-16).

The winner of the West, when all’s said and done, gets the No. 2 seed in the SEC Tournament, leaving the other five teams — and maybe even Georgia (15-12) if it falters against Vanderbilt next weekend — to scrap for the final four spots in the field.

“The West is so tight right now,” Tigers coach John Pawlowski said. “Anything can happen right now.”

Sunday, Alabama reversed the trend of late-inning heroics that Auburn exhibited in its doubleheader sweep a day earlier.

The Tide plated three in the top of the ninth inning off Auburn starter Slade Smith, on a Taylor Dugas RBI double and singles from Jared Reaves and Austen Smith to take a 7-4 lead and give the Tigers only three outs to mount a comeback.

Creede Simpson didn’t waste much time, socking a leadoff home run to left-center to cut the lead to 7-5.

Then Casey McElroy smacked a two-out double off the green monster in left to plate Justin Fradejas and put the potential winning run at the plate in the form of Tony Caldwell.

But Alabama reliever Tucker Hawley (6-2) — making his first appearance since April 3 after a bout with arm fatigue — struck Caldwell out to preserve the win.

“We just weren’t able to match them in the ninth,” Fradejas said. “Happy to take two, though.”

Auburn took a 2-0 lead in the first on a McElroy sacrifice fly and an RBI double by Wes Gilmer, but Alabama answered with two of its own on back-to-back RBI singles from Whitaker and Austen Smith in the fourth.

After a rocky first, Tide starter Jonathan Smart started cruising, retiring 15 batters in a row and not giving up another hit until the seventh inning.

Alabama’s bats, meanwhile, put the leadoff man on base six innings in a row against Slade Smith, plating one in the sixth on an Austen Smith RBI double to take a 3-2 lead.

Auburn battled back in the seventh with a Justin Hargett suicide squeeze that scored Kevin Patterson and a Fradejas sacrifice fly to score Jay Gonzalez and make it 4-3, Tigers.

The lead didn’t last long, as Alabama knotted the game at 4-4 with a Reaves RBI single in the top of the eighth.

McElroy and Caldwell singled to start the eighth and chase Smart, but Hawley got the next three Tigers hitters to preserve the tie and send the game to the ninth.

“We couldn’t manufacture a run,” Pawlowski said. “We couldn’t get anything going that inning. It kind of set us on our heels.”

Dugas went 3-for-5 with three runs for Alabama, Andrew Miller turned in a 3-for-4 performance, and Reaves, Austen Smith and Whitaker each had two hits and two RBIs.

Smart gave up four runs on eight hits over seven innings before yielding to Hawley.

“It was a huge win for us today,” Tide coach Mitch Gaspard said. “We just kind of found a way, had a big ninth inning and then kind of held on for dear life. Real proud of our team.”

Slade Smith (2-1) put in the longest outing of his career, giving up six earned runs on 12 hits over 8 2/3 innings, and McElroy went 2-for-4 with two RBIs in the loss.

Auburn closes out its SEC season against Tennessee (5-22) next weekend, while Alabama hosts reigning national champion South Carolina (20-7), which is in a three-way tie atop the SEC East.

Ole Miss heads to Arkansas and Mississippi State hosts LSU, both crucial series in clearing up the still murky SEC West playoff picture.

“It’s crazy how the SEC West works,” Slade Smith said. “The SEC East, they’re running away with it, and we’re still battling.”