AUBURN – In front of another record-breaking crowd of 7,434, No. 4 Auburn baseball took down the Stetson Hatters 8-5 in the second round of the Auburn Regional at Plainsman Park to advance to the final round unscathed.
The Tigers’ offense stayed hot on their home turf, banging a whopping eight doubles on the night, led by three hits from Cooper McMurray – all doubles. Eric Snow followed suit with three hits and two doubles, and Bub Terrell two hits – both doubles – and a team-high three RBIs.
Struggling down the stretch in the regular season, Auburn ace Samuel Dutton delivered a gutsy performance, going 6.2 innings with five runs allowed on seven hits with a season-high 111 pitches and earning his seventh win of the year.
After a scoreless first inning, the Tigers took the lead with a trio of doubles in the top half of the second. McMurray led off the inning with a double to right field. Snow smoked a one-out double down the line in left to plate McMurray, and Terrell traded places with Snow an at-bat later to give the Tigers a two-run cushion.
Auburn put up its second straight two-run inning in the third and ran Stetson starter James Hays from the game after 2.2 innings of work. Eric Guevara recorded a one-out single and Ike Irish followed with a double down the right field line to plate him. CMcMurray banged a near homer off the War Eagle Wall in left, trading places with Irish to give the Tigers a four-run cushion, but they left the bases loaded to end the inning.
After retiring the first six batters he faced in order, Dutton surrendered his first hit of the night in the third with a double to lead off the frame. A walk right after gave the Hatters two runners on, one that would later be plated on an RBI-groundout.
Holding Auburn scoreless in the top half of the fourth, the Hatters had much more success against Dutton the second time through the lineup. Dutton gave up back-to-back singles to lead off the inning and walked the bases loaded with no outs. A bloop single that got past Bristol Carter in center allowed them to plate one more, but a potential second was hosed at the plate on a rope delivered by Irish backing Carter up. One more was plated from second on a single through the right side, cutting the Tigers’ lead to 4-3.
After Stetson’s two-run inning, Auburn jumped back in front by two courtesy of a lead-off double from McMurray – his third of the night – followed by another from Snow two at-bats later.
The Tigers added a pair of big insurance runs in the seventh as Terrell cleared the bases with a two-out backside double off the War Eagle Wall, stretching their lead to 7-3.
Looking to get out of the inning with his third straight clean frame after retiring the first two Stetson batters in the sixth, Dutton battled a rather tight strike zone and surrendered a 3-2 walk. An at-bat later, he gave up a double, allowing the Hatters to plate one more and make it a three-run ball game. Ryan Hetzler entered and gave up an inherited run on an RBI-single to right, making it a 7-5 ballgame. Giving up two back-to-back singles, he later got out of a bases-loaded jam to hold Stetson at bay.
Stetson threatened in the bottom of the eighth with a pair of singles to put two on, but Hetzler snagged a screamer right back to him to end the inning.
Irish wasn’t done tacking on to the Tigers’ lead as he led off the top of the ninth with a 388-foot opposite field home run, giving them a three-run lead they would close it out with.
Auburn will take on the winner of Sunday’s elimination game at 6 p.m. at Plainsman Park in hopes of an undefeated regional showing and its fourth regional championship under Butch Thompson.
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