HOOVER, Ala. — Auburn starter Jake Marciano went six efficient innings on 86 pitches, reliever Jackson Sanders closed the door with three scoreless innings on 50 pitches, and the No. 6 seed Auburn Tigers eliminated the defending national champion No. 14 seed LSU Tigers 3-1 on Wednesday night at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium. Two solo home runs — by catcher Chase Fralick in the bottom of the fourth and third baseman Eric Guevara in the bottom of the sixth — were the difference. Auburn advances to a Friday quarterfinal matchup with No. 3 seed Texas A&M.
LSU’s season ends at 30-28 overall and 9-21 in SEC play. The Tigers’ title defense, which had survived a tense night against Oklahoma 24 hours earlier on the back of a Steven Milam two-run home run and a Sheerin shutdown bullpen performance, came undone against an Auburn club that has spent the season as one of the steadier programs in the conference.
Auburn improved to 37-18 overall and 17-13 in SEC play. The Tigers — ranked No. 6 in the most recent D1Baseball Top 25 — face Texas A&M on Friday, May 22 at 8 p.m. ET on the SEC Network. The Aggies, ranked No. 10 in the D1Baseball Top 25 at 29-13, get Auburn coming off elimination-night work; both staffs will need to plan their pitching around Friday’s matchup carefully.
For Jay Johnson, in his fifth season at LSU and one year removed from his second national championship, Wednesday’s loss closes a season that has been defined by injury and by the impossibility of the No. 14 seed’s path. Right-hander William Schmidt — the projected weekend starter — was scratched before Tuesday’s first-round game against Oklahoma after experiencing back tightness in warmups and has not pitched in Hoover. Outfielder Omar Serna Jr., LSU’s freshman All-SEC selection, suffered a cut hand sliding into home plate Tuesday and missed Wednesday’s game; Johnson signaled Tuesday postgame that Serna’s availability for the tournament was in doubt.
For Butch Thompson, in his second season at Auburn and now five wins from a potential NCAA Tournament regional host bid, Wednesday’s win positions the Tigers as one of the more rested teams entering the quarterfinals. Auburn used just two pitchers on the night. Marciano and Sanders combined to throw 136 pitches across nine innings on Wednesday — efficiency that gives Thompson rotation flexibility into Friday.
GET OUTTA HERE! 👋
EG goes BIG fly to left! pic.twitter.com/z5iPbTS3y0
— Auburn Baseball (@AuburnBaseball) May 21, 2026
Marciano was lights-out
The story of the game was Auburn’s starter. Jake Marciano — a right-hander whose efficiency has made him the most reliable arm in the Auburn rotation — was masterful through six innings. Across 22 batters faced, Marciano allowed four hits, one earned run, one walk, and struck out four on 86 pitches. He gave up the LSU run in the fourth on a Derek Curiel double and a John Pearson sacrifice fly, and otherwise navigated the LSU lineup without trouble.
Marciano spoke about the start in the postgame.
“I was excited to get the ball for the first game of the SEC tournament,” Marciano said. “I just trusted my team behind me, trusted Chase, and happy we’re able to get it done tonight.”
Asked what was working for him on the mound, Marciano credited his command: “Really just by command of all my pitches. I wasn’t really worried about the ABS system and how that affected my game, but really just throwing every pitch in locations I needed.”
When Marciano exited after six, Auburn had a 3-1 lead. He turned the ball over to Jackson Sanders.
“It’s actually the greatest relief ever,” Marciano said. “I know whoever comes in, especially Jackson, that they’re gonna get the job done. Having the best pitching staff in the country is really, really great.”
The redshirt junior right-hander — named to the 2026 All-SEC Second Team as a reliever on Monday — closed the door across three innings, allowing no hits, two walks, and two strikeouts on 50 pitches. Sanders’s nine-out save is the kind of two-inning-plus performance that defines tournament closers.
“It feels like the last six weeks, you can’t underscore what Jackson Sanders has done for this baseball team,” Thompson said. “You just can’t. Whether it’s been Marciano and Sanders or anybody and Sanders, it’s been a good formula for us.”
For Marciano, watching Sanders work the ninth from the dugout — and especially the bases-loaded, one-out moment LSU produced — was a moment of total confidence.
“It’s a great feeling, knowing that Sanders has the ball,” Marciano said. “I think he’s one of the best, the best reliever in the country, and I know that he’s gonna get it done.”
Fralick’s home run, and the at-bat that broke open the game
The decisive offensive moment came in the bottom of the fourth inning. After LSU had scored its only run on a John Pearson sacrifice fly to take a 1-0 lead, Auburn catcher Chase Fralick stepped in with two outs and the bases empty. The count went his way.
“I just got a plus-count fastball, and I was ready for it,” Fralick said.
Fralick caught it and drove it over the fence in left field for a solo home run that tied the game 1-1. The blast was Auburn’s first answer in a game that had been controlled by LSU starter Casan Evans through three innings.
Fralick — the senior backstop who has been Auburn’s catcher and offensive anchor for two seasons — finished the night 1-for-4 with the HR, the RBI, and a run scored. Behind the plate, he called the pitching for Marciano and Sanders’ nine combined innings.
“Behind the plate, our pitchers just did a great job pounding the strike zone and mixing it up,” Fralick said. “They did a great job getting outs for us.”
Chris Rembert — Auburn’s second baseman, also named to the All-SEC First Team Monday — watched Fralick’s HR sequence develop and was matter-of-fact about what it meant.
“Chase is a dog, man,” Rembert said. “I mean, nothing less than that. Almost expected from him, to be honest. He’s an awesome ballplayer. Awesome kid, awesome person, awesome teammate.”
The Fralick home run shifted momentum. Thompson called it “a big swing,” and elaborated.
“I thought Fralick’s big swing was a little exhale for us,” Thompson said. “That was a big one.”
The fifth-inning sequence: an LSU error, then Guevara
LSU got back into the game briefly in the fifth — but couldn’t sustain it. Auburn took advantage of an LSU throwing error that gave the Tigers a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the fifth inning, and then in the bottom of the sixth, Guevara hit Auburn’s second home run of the night to make it 3-1.
Guevara’s HR landed in almost the exact same spot as Fralick’s.
“It was awesome,” Guevara said. “We put ourselves in a good position with some counts, and we were ready to hit some pitches, and I’m just excited that we got that win.”
Guevara — the Auburn third baseman who was named to the 2026 SEC All-Defensive Team on Monday — was the only Auburn player with multiple hits on the night, adding a bunt single in the eighth inning that helped Auburn manage the late-game tempo.
“EG, we needed that one,” Thompson said of Guevara’s home run, “because we were defending the runner at first base there in the ninth. So the two-run lead wound up being big.”
Casan Evans’s career start
For LSU, the night belonged to a senior right-hander who, on paper, had no business pitching this well in the role he was asked to fill.
Casan Evans — the same arm that closed the 2025 College World Series final and won LSU its national championship — was making his second start of the 2026 season. His ERA as a starter coming into the night was over 6.00. In a single-elimination tournament setting on the night his team needed everything, Evans delivered: 4.2 innings, four hits, two runs, one earned run, one walk, and eight strikeouts on 87 pitches. The eight strikeouts were a season high for Evans as a starter.
“Casan Evans’s ERA being 6.00 isn’t really a great picture of who he really is,” one LSU fan posted on r/collegebaseball as Evans worked through the Auburn lineup. “He is basically the relief arm that won us the World Series last year. He just has not translated to an everyday starter.”
It translated tonight. Evans struck out the side in the third. But in the fourth, the plus-count fastball that Fralick was waiting on left the park. Then in the fifth, an LSU throwing error opened the door for the go-ahead run. And in the sixth, Guevara’s blast closed it.
Evans exited at 87 pitches having allowed two solo home runs across 4.2 innings. The relief turnover came too late. Ethan Plog entered for one out, then Zac Cowan worked the final 3.0 innings — 3 hits, 1 run, 1 earned run, 0 walks, 4 strikeouts on 42 pitches.
The ninth inning
LSU’s last gasp produced one of the night’s most tense innings. Auburn led 3-1 with three outs to go.
Cade Arrambide led off with a flyout to center. Curiel followed and worked the count full, then drew a walk after an LSU ABS challenge on the 3-2 pitch was overturned from a strike to a ball. Steven Milam stepped in and reached on a fielder’s choice to shortstop; Curiel was out at second.
With one on and one out, Brayden Simpson — the pinch-hitter who came in to DH after the Serna injury — worked another full count and drew his second walk of the night on the 3-2 pitch, also after an ABS overturn. The walks loaded the bases with one out for John Pearson.
