Auburn baseball clinches series at South Carolina with huge Saturday win
Auburn baseball found themselves on the outside looking in of D1Baseball’s Field of 64 projections this week and continued to fall in the RPI ahead of a challenging series against the RPI’s top team in South Carolina.
The Tigers apparently used that as motivation, as they followed up Friday’s performance by scoring nine more runs on Saturday to take down South Carolina, 9-5, to clinch the series at Founders Park in Columbia.
For the second game in a row, Auburn jumped out to a comfortable lead in the first inning, which ended up paying off in the late innings. Cole Foster and Kason Howell each scored two runs with singles in the first inning to put Auburn ahead, 4-0, before the Gamecocks stepped to the plate.
“Two days in a row we scored in the first inning and really set a tone,” head coach Butch Thompson said. “It got us into the ballgame, and we did even more today in the first. You knew they’d make a rally, so we had to keep playing.”
Auburn tacked on two more runs in the 2nd inning on solo home runs by Nate LaRue and Bobby Peirce to extend the Tigers’ lead to 6-0. South Carolina got on the board in the bottom half of the inning on a single by Jonathan French.
Auburn’s hottest hitter, Cooper McMurray, continued his stroke of luck by smacking two more home runs in the game. His first home run of the game was a two-run shot to center field and bumped Auburn’s lead to 8-1. He would score Auburn’s final run of the game in the top of the 9th inning with a solo home run.
McMurray has now hit seven home runs in seven straight games, and has now recorded three multi-home run games of the season.
“To open the day with a four-spot in the first is always big,” McMurray said Saturday. “Our pitching staff has come out and been really good for us and making it easy on the offense. On that side of the ball, we think we can score however many runs at any given time. It’s just about playing a full game of clean baseball.”
The Gamecocks began a rally in the middle innings, led by Cole Messina. Messina picked up four RBI on a 5th inning double and a two-run home run home run in the 7th inning. The rally would not be enough for South Carolina to earn the comeback, as they would fall to Auburn for the second straight game.
Auburn’s series win over South Carolina is the first time that the Gamecocks have dropped a series at home. Heading into the series, South Carolina had a 24-1 record at home, and have since dropped two straight.
“Players are allowed to get better, and this is a good step forward for us this weekend, but we have to keep playing,” Thompson said.
Pitching was also valuable in Saturday’s win. Christian Herberholz, Chase Isbell, and Konnor Copeland combined to strike out 11 batters and allowing just six hits.
Game three of the series between Auburn and South Carolina is set for 2 p.m. CT on Sunday. The game will be broadcasted on SEC Network+ as well as the Auburn Sports Network.
BIG boost to the resume! 🗃️#WarEagle pic.twitter.com/2JoR5AIPJb
— Auburn Baseball (@AuburnBaseball) April 29, 2023
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