AUBURN, Ala. (EETV)--After two straight mercy rule games, the Tigers looked for a repeat performance to finish the sweep against Wright State Sunday. Scoreless stretches for both kept it from being another mercy rule, but multiple Auburn homers secured the sweep, 9-4.
Auburn’s offense did not take long to warm up as Ike Irish got a quiet Sunday crowd on their feet, sending a ball over the left-field wall to go up 2-0.
On the other side, Wright State’s offense got decent contact off freshman Chatterton, but shot themselves in the foot multiple times early. Wright State got caught being too aggressive around the basepath, which led to four baserunners getting caught by catcher Ike Irish.
After a quiet second inning, Irish and McMurray tried to put some more runs on the board for the Tigers. Ike started the inning by getting hit with a ball that was too high and tight. Then McMurray tried legging out a double before getting caught at second. Lastly, Deric Fabian hit a grounder to the shortstop as Irish crossed home to make it 3-0.
Looking for back-to-back scoring innings, Auburn’s Bristol Carter hit his first home run of the season, also scoring Fralick’s prior single. That would be the only scoring for the Tigers in the fourth, but a huge accomplishment for Carter to get him going this season.
Defensively, Chatterton allowed a baserunner in every inning he pitched but came back, allowing no runs through four. That was in large part due to Wright State’s lackluster baserunning. Allowing so many baserunners came to haunt him in the fifth as Wright State loaded the bases with only one out. Reliever Cam Tilly came in and got two straight outs, but State’s Blomquist crossed the plate on the ground out, giving them their first run of the game.
It was a great start to the sixth for Cam Tilly, getting two outs quickly, but then Cam Gilkerson came up to the plate. The ball from Tilly exploded off Gilkerson’s bat, a three-run no-doubter as it went 420 yards out in center. That homer closed the 5-1 gap to only one, putting pressure on Auburn’s offense to close out the game.
After a couple of scoreless innings, it looked like Auburn might be done for the day with scoring. That was until the bottom of the seventh when Bub Terrell stepped to the plate. With two outs, he hit a deep bomb out to right field that had everyone in the opposing bullpen looking up. Then, on the very next pitch, Edwards followed him up with a homer of his own, clearing the massive wall out in left field and giving the Tigers a much-needed three-run lead.
Only an inning later, Auburn had the bases loaded with their cleanup hitter coming up. Shortstop Fabian shot a ball into left field that scored two more runs to pad the lead heading into the final inning.
Hayden Murphy closed the game in the ninth after only four batters later, securing the 9-4 win for Auburn.
After the game, Coach Thompson enjoyed what he saw from his team, saying, "That may be one of our most enjoyable defensive days, and our offense, I think that was my favorite offensive game".
Auburn’s next game is a mid-week home matchup against Samford on Tuesday. It will be broadcast on the Auburn Sports Network and SECN+ at 6:00 p.m. CST.
