Mizzou captures series-opening win with late inning heroics

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Mizzou Baseball needed five runs with just nine outs left in Friday's action to complete a comeback over Auburn. It only took MU two innings to erase that deficit, capturing a 12-11 win in the series opener to keep themselves in the hunt to make the SEC Tournament.

Kerrick Jackson's crew entered the seventh inning with a one-run lead, but Auburn scored six runs in that same frame to take an 11-6 lead. However, MU quickly started to cut into that deficit, scoring two runs on a pair of RBI singles from Jedier Hernandez and Mateo Serna in the home half of the frame. Then, after Hernandez got another run back for Mizzou on his second RBI single of the contest, Matt Garcia completed a five-run comeback by delivering a three-RBI double with the bases loaded to put MU back in front for the rest of the night.

Five different Mizzou Tigers tallied multi-hit performances. Serna, Brock Daniels, Danny Corona and Justin Colon each finished with two hits while Hernandez posted a team-high three hits in the game. Colon also blasted his second home run of the season.

Bryce Mayer was Friday's winning pitcher, tossing two hitless frames out of the bullpen while recording two strikeouts to end the game. This marked the junior right-hander's second win of the campaign.

With Friday's win, Mizzou is now just one game behind LSU for the final spot in the SEC Tournament. However, the Baton Rouge Tigers do hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Columbia Tigers.

Up next - MU has its sights set on clinching its first SEC series win since early April on Saturday evening. Game two of this three-game set is scheduled for May 11 at 3 p.m.