No. 6 seed Auburn baseball jumped out to an early lead and never looked back en route to a 7-0 shutout victory over No. 3 seed Texas A&M on Friday night at the Hoover Met.
The win propelled Auburn to the SEC Tournament semifinals for the first time since 1999 and marked just the third time this century the Tigers have won at least two games in the event.
Every Auburn hitter in the lineup recorded a hit, with Eric Guevara and Bristol Carter each leading the way with two.
Auburn used a stellar performance on the rubber from pitchers Andreas Alvarez and LJ Cormier, who combined for the two-hit shutout. Alvarez struck out nine in five innings, bringing his season total to 102. He joined Jake Marciano as Auburn’s first pitching tandem to each record at least 100 strikeouts in a season since 1999, the fifth duo in program history to do so.
Cormier struck out four in as many innings, recording his second save of the year.
Auburn struck early after Bub Terrell drove in a run with a double to right center in the first.
Mason McCraine put Auburn up 2-0 in the second with his sixth homer of the season over the wall in center field. But the Tigers tacked on three more runs in the frame after a pair of singles and a Chase Fralick double to drive them in. Guevara singled to right to score Fralick.
The Tigers pushed their lead to 6-0 in the sixth with a pair of doubles from Carter and Chris Rembert.
Ethin Bingaman led off the seventh with a 410-foot home run to push the lead to 7-0.
The Tigers will face No. 10 seed Arkansas on Saturday in the semifinals. First pitch is scheduled for approximately 3:30 p.m.
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