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Former Pike Lib star baseball player Drew Nelson earned his first win at the college level, leading the Auburn Tigers to a 6-5 win over South Alabama on Tuesday.

While Nelson earned his first start of the season on opening weekend, the former Gatorade Alabama Player of the Year struggled early in the season but rebounded to throw a dominant five innings against South Alabama.

“I just like how a young player hangs in there and gets better over five weeks,” Auburn coach Thompson said of Nelson’s improvement. “He got us off to a great start. All the way into the seventh (inning), we had all freshmen on the mound and three more out there in the field. We’re growing. We’re still having moments but that was really good for Drew to get us in the ballgame.”

While South Alabama rallied to score five runs in the final three innings, Nelson pitched the first four and struck out two batters, while giving up just one hit and no runs during his four frames on the mound.

The true freshman hurler is 1-1 on the mound this season and has struck out 11 batters in 10 and 2/3 innings pitched thus far in his young college career. Nelson and the Tigers return to SEC play this weekend for a conference series with Georgia at home March 23 through March 25.