Ike Irish picks up where he left off as Auburn baseball sweeps Eastern Kentucky
AUBURN — Auburn baseball has opened its season with a series sweep for the first time since 2021.
The Tigers topped Eastern Kentucky on Friday (17-6), Saturday (6-1) and Sunday (9-1) in Plainsman Park, beating the Colonels by a combined score of 32-8 over the three contests. It's the most runs Auburn has plated in a season-opening, three-game series since it hung 34 on Longwood in 2018.
Auburn had an announced crowd of 4,403 on Friday, which is the most for a season opener in program history. The announced student crowd of 1,091 that same evening was the largest the Tigers have ever enjoyed.
"First off, it was a special day for our program," Thompson said Friday. "... Getting closer to the game and settling in, you could just feel an enviornment growing in Plainsman Park. ... I thought the effort and process was great tonight. I thought they were ready to play. I ask them to be consistent. ... I thought they did a pretty good job."
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Don't call Auburn baseball's Ike Irish a one-hit wonder
The deepest park of a ballpark is dead center, and Ike Irish sent an impressive 420-foot shot over the batter's eye in the fourth inning Friday: "That's got to be the furthest ball I've ever hit," he said afterward. Irish collected five hits and six RBIs in 13 at-bats against the Colonels.
Irish hit the ground running as a freshman in 2023, leading the Tigers in batting average (.361), hits (86) and doubles (24) in a season that saw him predominantly as a designated hitter with Nate LaRue being the primary catcher. LaRue, however, graduated, and Irish figures to slide into a full-time role behind the plate in 2024.
He started at the position in all three games against Eastern Kentucky: "It keeps him involved in the game," Thompson said of Irish playing catcher. "He's really engaged. ... I thought Ike being right in the middle of things, he did a great job. ... When he stops in the box, it's pretty personal. He has a lot of type A. He's competitive. It's personal when he steps in the box. I love that about him."
Irish was one of two players, along with Chris Stanfield, to hit a single, double, triple and home run throughout the series.
Joseph Gonzalez has rust, but talent hasn't gone anywhere
Redshirt junior Joseph Gonzalez returned to the mound for the first time in 364 days Saturday after missing all but one game in 2023 with a lingering shoulder injury. He started and tossed five scoreless innings, surrendering two hits against the 20 batters he faced.
Gonzalez, who turned in a 3.22 ERA in 2022, did walk three batters. Thirty-seven of the 69 pitches he threw were balls: "It was about what I expected," Thompson said of Gonzalez. "... He looked like he hadn't been out there for a year. ... What he did at a high level for Joseph is manipulating the swings. We got ground balls. ...
"Joseph can be a lot better. I know it, he knows it. But at the same time he just kept navigating and kept getting better, and (he) will over these next few weeks."
Rundown of the newcomers
Nine players who weren't on the team last season made their Auburn debuts against the Colonels, including UAB transfer Carson Myers. Myers started Sunday and didn't allow a run in the six frames he pitched, giving up two hits and no walks while picking up eight strikeouts.
Miami (Ohio) transfer Cooper Weiss left the series with a .500 batting average, and Christian Hall, another former UAB player, launched a two-run shot to center field Sunday.
Richard Silva is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at rsilva@gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @rich_silva18.
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Ike Irish leads Auburn baseball to sweep over Eastern Kentucky
