AUBURN – Three insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth paired with strong performances from the pitching staff helped the Auburn baseball team fend off North Alabama 6-2 on Wednesday evening at Plainsman Park.
The Tigers led 3-2 heading into the bottom of the eighth inning looking to add insurance runs as Cooper McMurray took to the plate. McMurray bunted into the shift down the third base line for an infield single and later advanced to second as Derric Fabian drew a walk. A Chase Fralick bunt moved them into scoring position and Eric Snow singled to center field to start the scoring efforts.
Bub Terrell grounded out to shortstop, scoring Fabian from third. Chris Rembert hammered a hard groundball to short an at-bat later, one that North Alabama shortstop Jenkins Leighton couldn’t come up with, allowing Snow to score.
The Lions struck first in the top of the first inning as Jonathan Lane singled to right field to lead off the game. Nash Rippen followed with a two-run blast over the wall in right center field to give North Alabama an early 2-0 lead.
From that point on, the Lions were held to just two hits the rest of the game as starting pitcher Andreas Alvarez responded with nine strikeouts in his five innings of work — the first Auburn pitcher to reach that mark since 2014.
“It was a lot of fun. Not how you want to start, but it felt good to have the guys behind me and be able to fix the issues and mistakes I made,” Alvarez said.
Griffin Graves relieved Alvarez in the sixth inning and held the Lions hitless in his one inning of work, recording one strikeout. Parker Carlson recorded the save with five strikeouts while also holding the Lions hitless in the final three innings.
With North Alabama leading 2-1 as the Tigers came to bat in the home half of the fifth, freshman Chris Rembert recorded his first longball of his collegiate career off the batter’s eye in center field.
“Going into the at-bat, I wanted to be as aggressive as possible, and I got a fastball right down the middle, and I didn't miss it,” Rembert said.
With the score knotted at two in the sixth, Bub Terrell doubled to left center, scoring Snow who singled to left field with two outs.
With the win, the Tigers improved to 4-1 on the season. They’re back in action for a weekend series against Wright State, beginning on Friday at 2:30 p.m. CT. The game will be streamed on SECN+ and can be heard locally on WINGZ 94.3.
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email logan.fowler@1819News.com.
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