AUBURN - After Sunday night’s pair of come-from-behind wins, the Auburn Doubledays were far from out of the game against the Batavia Muckdogs on Monday. Coming in with a three-game win streak over the Muckdogs, the Doubledays were a couple of errors away from a sweep. A nasty collision at the plate became the scoring difference as Batavia took the 5-4 win at Falcon Park.

Batavia’s Devin Goodwin cracked a single up the middle, which center fielder Markus Brisker fired perfectly back to Doubledays catcher Jack Murphy as Batavia’s D’Marcus Ingram rounded third. Like a tailback hurling into an end zone, Ingram plowed into Murphy, who dropped the ball in the top of the seventh inning. Both players were shaken up, but Batavia walked away victorious.

The Doubledays got a little more banged up, as third baseman Brad Glenn left the game after a ball hopped in front of him and cracked him in the face in the fourth inning. He didn’t return to the game and there was no word on the seriousness of his injury.

Auburn tallied eight hits in the loss, and sent two pitchers out that threw more than well enough to get a win, but two costly errors in the fourth inning inadvertently led to Steve Turnbull’s first loss of the season.

“We obviously made some mistakes that were costly,” Doubledays manager Dennis Holmberg said. “They obviously took advantage of those mistakes, too. It wasn’t a game of missed opportunities tonight, but one of defensive miscues.”

Scott Gracey was the pitcher at the time of Auburn’s mistakes, as he lasted six innings and allowed eight of the Muckdogs’ 10 hits, but only Xavier Scruggs’ sixth inning solo home run was charged as an earned run.

“Gracey did a fine job tonight,” Holmberg said. “Both guys threw well enough to get a win, but the guys in the field have to be able to back them up. You know what? When a pitcher makes a good pitch and gets a ground ball, we really need to turn it.”

With a 2-0 lead going into the fourth inning, the Doubledays seemed to have control of the game early until Glenn overthrew a ball to first baseman Lance Durham to let Goodwin advance to second base.

An Alan Ahmady single put runners on the corners and two batters later, shortstop Kevin Nolan bobbled what should have been a double play ball to allow Goodwin to score. Ivan Castro later belted a two-run single to wrap up the inning.

Auburn scattered four runs in four different innings, but couldn’t make another comeback in the ninth, despite Jon Fernandez hitting a leadoff single in the No. 9 spot.

Kevin Seagrist earned the win in three innings of work, giving up two runs, four hits, but striking out three. Fernandez led Auburn at the plate, with three hits, and newcomer Yan Gomes had two hits and an RBI. Nolan also had an RBI in the second inning.

Speedy Chris Hopkins tied the game in the fifth on a Seagrist wild pitch.

After Batavia scored in the sixth, Brisker blasted an RBI double in the bottom of the inning to score Fernandez to tie the game again.

Now two games under .500, Auburn will embark on a six-game road trip beginning today in Mahoning Valley. The Doubledays will then head to Williamsport before a day off on Monday and will return home against Oneonta on Tuesday.

NOTES: Fresh off a College World Series victory, LSU catcher Sean Ochinko will join Auburn in Mahoning Valley today, according to Holmberg. Ochinko was drafted in the 11th round by the Toronto Blue Jays in June’s MLB amateur draft. ... Outfielder Eric Eiland is also expected to play in the next couple of days after sitting out the last few games with a hamstring injury.

Muckdogs 5

Doubledays 4