AUBURN, Ala. (Interstat) — DeAmez Ross homered on the game’s second pitch, but Auburn answered with a barrage of long balls and took control with a decisive sixth inning, beating UCF 9-3 on Sunday afternoon at Samford Stadium – Hitchcock Field at Plainsman Park.

Ross led off the top of the first with a solo shot to right field for the Knights. UCF added two unearned runs in the second, capitalizing on a fielding error by Auburn shortstop. Andrew Jacobs singled to load the bases, and Ross singled home a run before Andrew Lodise scored on a groundout.

Auburn’s offense responded in the third. Mason McCraine homered to right, and Chase Fralick followed with a solo homer to the same area, cutting the deficit to 3-2. Ethin Bingaman tied the game in the fourth with a solo homer to center field.

The game was interrupted by two weather delays totaling 50 minutes. The first delay occurred in the bottom of the first at 5:19 p.m. and lasted 22 minutes. The second delay came in the bottom of the second at 6:09 p.m. and stretched 28 minutes.

Auburn took its first lead in the fifth. McCraine walked, moved to third on a single by Eric Guevara and scored on a sacrifice fly from Cooper Rembert. UCF answered in the top of the sixth when Zach Skinner homered to left-center to knot the game at 4-4.

The most critical sequence came in the bottom of the sixth. After a groundout, Cade Belyeu smashed a solo homer to right field, putting Auburn ahead 5-4. Two batters later, Trey Belza crushed a homer to center field, extending the lead to 6-4. The back-to-back blasts gave Auburn the lead for good and broke open what had been a tightly contested game.

Fralick added his second homer of the game in the seventh, a solo shot to right field that made it 7-4. In the eighth, Auburn padded its lead. McCraine doubled to right, scoring a run, and Fralick was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to plate another, pushing the margin to 9-3.

Auburn’s pitching held UCF scoreless over the final three innings. Starter Alex Petrovic gave way to Ryan Hetzler in the seventh, and the bullpen combination of Hetzler, Braden Calise and Matthew Heyl worked around a single in the ninth to close out the win. Roman Kimball started for UCF and was lifted after 4 2/3 innings. Anthony Lariz, Mason Sauser, Zach Malvasio, Heyl and Calise followed in relief.

UCF totaled six hits, including two from Ross. Auburn banged out 10 hits, led by Fralick with two homers and three RBIs. McCraine had a homer, double and two RBIs. Bingaman homered and doubled. Belyeu and Belza each homered. The Knights fell to 32-23 overall. Auburn improved to 40-20.

Interstat’s game simulator projected a 6-5 final in favor of Auburn. Its ELO system gave the Tigers a 65.60 percent probability to win. Auburn was installed as a pregame favorite with a spread of minus 3.5.