TROY — If Ben Jones showed up at Auburn head coach Tom Slater’s doorstep looking for a date with his daughter, Slater would happily oblige.

In fact, he’d encourage it — especially with the way Jones came through on the diamond Tuesday night.

Jones got the big hit — a two-out, two-strike bloop single to center that scored the two go-ahead runs and gave Auburn a 6-4 win over the Trojans at Riddle-Pace Field.

Reliever Josh Storm got Jones in an 0-2 count, but delivered a pitch inside that Jones hit off the inside of the bat. It scored Justin Hargett and
Mike Bianucci to give Auburn back the lead it held for much of the game.

“I was trying to put the bat on the ball, get the ball in play and I got lucky and it fell in there,” Jones said.

Hargett led off the ninth with a bunt single and Bianucci walked. Losing pitcher A.J. Howard (3-1) got Hunter Morris to ground out, advancing the runners.

Storm then came in from second base and struck out David Cunningham. He got two strikes on Jones, a late replacement for Kevin Patterson, before Jones got the bloop hit.

Troy head coach Bobby Pierce said an inside fastball was called, but it didn’t get inside enough.

“It was still a solid pitch,” Pierce said. “It was unfortunate for us that he got enough on it to trinkle into the outfield for the go-ahead runs.”

It capped off a perfect night for Jones, who went 2-for-2 with a run scored and the two RBI.

“He’s about perfect in every way,” Slater said. “He makes straight A’s in the classroom. If he showed up at your door to date your daughter, you’d say, ‘Please go ahead.’ He’s a wonderful, wonderful kid, a class kid, and he loves Auburn in every way.”

Auburn (12-8) led 3-1 for much of the game before Troy (12-7) got three unearned runs in the seventh without a hit. Storm, seeing his first action as a hitter, reached on an error and Bart Pettus walked.

With two strikes, Bryan Miller bunted and reached on a throwing error by AU reliever Michael Hurst.

A balk by Hurst scored Storm to close the gap to 3-2. Brooks then drove in his 13th run of the season with a groundout to first, scoring Pettus and Precise greeted reliever Evan Crawford with a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Miller and giving Troy a 4-3 lead.

“I wasn’t real happy,” Slater said. “Walks and errors typically score. That’s an old baseball axiom and it certainly was true.

“There was no panic and no sense of concern.”

A two-out double by No. 9-hitter Matt Hall tied the score at 4-all in the eighth off Troy reliever J.J. Whetsel.

Auburn’s Trent Mummey led off the game with a solo homer. Troy got a run back when Pettus scored on an error and Auburn scored twice in the second thanks to two Troy errors on one play.

Auburn outhit Troy 12-4. AU starter Luke Greinke pitched five innings of four-hit ball. Evan Crawford (3-0) got the win with 2.1 hitless innings of relief and Bryan Woodall got his fourth save.

The game was played in front of a stadium-record 2,567 fans. AU snapped a four-game losing streak and hosts Kentucky this weekend in SEC play.

Troy, losers of four straight, hosts North Florida today at 6 p.m. Catcher Beau Brooks snapped a 21-game hit streak, going 0-for-3.