Two separate weather delays halted play for a total of an hour and a half, but the Trojans sent the faithful home happy with a 9-5 win over the Auburn Tigers on Tuesday night.

The win for the Trojans improves their record on the season to 36-17. They continue to pursue an at-large bid in the NCAA Regional Tournament.

“Really proud of the win,” said head coach Mark Smartt. “It was an important win for a lot of reasons. Most important to me, we swept the weekend. we had a really nice win tonight and hopefully that will piggyback into our series with South Alabama.”

Max Newton got the start for the Trojans. Newton pitched the game’s first three innings and allowed four runs on five hits. Newton was followed by senior Corey Childress. The senior pitched 3.1 innings, allowing one run. After Jackson Cofer pitched a third of an inning, the Trojans received 2.1 strong innings from CJ Carter.

The Tigers broke the ice in the first inning. Will Holland led off the game with a double down the left field line. Holland came around to score on a wild pitch to put the Tigers up 1-0.

The Trojans had their opportunities in both the first and second innings but left four runners on base.

The Trojans broke through in the third inning and tied the game at one. Joey Denison led off the inning with a walk. After stealing second, Denison came around to score on an RBI single by Rigsby Mosley.

The Tigers picked up just two hits in the fourth, but scored three runs to take a 4-1 lead. The first three batters reached base to start the inning. The first run came across to score on a bases loaded walk by Jay Estes. The second two came when the Trojans attempted to convert a double play. Judd Ward beat the throw at first allowing two runners to score.

The Trojans sent eight batters to the plate in the sixth inning and took a one-run lead. The Trojans were beneficiaries of three walks in the inning and two doubles, this biggest being a bases loaded, bases clearing double by Drew Frederic to give the Trojans 5-4 lead.

Following a 33-minute delay in the top half of the seventh inning, the Tigers evened the score with a bases loaded walk.

Following the walk, the game was halted once again this time for 57 minutes. After the game resumed, CJ Carter got the Trojans out of the inning still tied at 5.

With two Trojans on base in the seventh, Nate Prestegard came in as a pinch hitter and hit a bases clearing double to put the Trojans up 7-5.

“I told the team at the end I was really proud with how we dealt with that (seventh inning),” Smartt said. “That was a very difficult process. We made two different pitching changes and inside those changes there were two different delays. That seventh inning took almost two hours for them to hit. We got out of jail with the bases loaded situation and got their best hitter out. I thought once we got through that I saw our team take a positive look towards let’s go ahead and finish this.”

Denison sent the Trojan faithful to their feet in the eighth inning when he cleared the wall in left center for his sixth homerun of the year, putting the Trojans up 9-5.

The Trojans finished the contest with 12 hits led by Mosley who finished 3-5 with an RBI.

The Trojans will close out the regular season with a three-game series with rival South Alabama beginning on Thursday.