AUBURN – Auburn’s road to Omaha will continue to run through Plainsman Park.
The fourth-ranked Tigers used strong pitching from starter Andreas Alvarez and 10 runs in two middle innings to surge past North Carolina State 11-1 in the Auburn Regional championship on Sunday night at Plainsman Park. The win marks Auburn’s fourth regional championship under head coach Butch Thompson’s tutelage.
Auburn got an outstanding performance from starter Andreas Alvarez, who earned his third win of the season, on the bump. He tossed five scoreless innings, relinquishing six hits along the way, and was pulled after a single and a walk to begin the sixth. Before the innings’ start, it was 10 straight scoreless innings tossed by the freshman dating back to the Tigers' last midweek game against Jacksonville State.
At the plate, Auburn was led by its top three in the order – Chris Rembert, Bub Terrell and Ike Irish. Rembert and Terrell recorded four hits each, with Irish tacking on three.
Cade Fisher earned the save in relief of Alvarez, with one run given up in four innings on three hits.
After struggling to bring runners across in the first three frames – leaving four on base with just a 1-for-7 mark with RISP – the Tigers broke loose with a seven-spot in their half of the fourth. Auburn’s standout freshmen in the lineup– Chase Fralick, Rembert and Terrell – brought in the first four runs of the inning with a trio of RBI-singles, Terrell’s welcoming home two. Ike Irish capped the innings' scoring efforts off as he hammered his 18th home run of the season – 420 feet – with a bases-clearing three-run shot to right field, extending the Tigers’ lead to 7-0.
Auburn tacked on to its lead with three more runs in the top half of the fifth with some great two-out at-bats. With two runners on after Fralick drew a walk and Deric Fabian recorded a bunt single, Rembert recorded his fourth hit of the night with an opposite-field two-RBI double. Terrell jumped on one two pitches later, trading places with Rembert to extend the Tigers’ lead to 10-0.
The Tigers continued to pull away in the eighth with an insurance run after four straight walks.
North Carolina State brought across its first run in the bottom of the eighth as a single and a double put two runners in scoring position with two outs, with one being plated on a sacrifice fly to right field.
Auburn will host its first-ever Super Regional next weekend as Coastal Carolina will make the trek to the Plains as champions of the Conway Regional. Dates and start times are TBA.
“Thankful for being able to get through this tough regional," Auburn coach Butch Thompson said after the game. "That was a grind for us, but I thought everybody worked hard to make this happen from the NCAA to the ground crew. The three teams were amazing here — meaning their head coaches and first-class players. It's not every regional that you get an opportunity to play each and every team, and we did. I hold (Elliott) Avent in the highest regard. Steve Trimper has been a friend for a long time. This was the first time we got to play on the field. Even Central Connecticut, those guys were so scrappy, and their players left it all on the field. It was amazing. We've never hosted a Super Regional before, so I'm pretty excited about that. I thought our guys didn't, maybe did not play perfect for three games, but I don't think we trailed in this regional any. They fought pretty hard. They were pretty connected and played a pretty solid three days for us."
Outfielder Bub Terrell was named Regional MVP.
"[W]e've got one goal in mind. I'll probably think about (being tournament MVP) after the season's over, but the job is not finished," he said of the award.
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