No. 8 Auburn picked up its seventh conference series win of the season against South Carolina on Thursday and Friday at Plainsman Park. The series win marks six straight for the Tigers over the Gamecocks dating back to 2015.
The Tigers picked up a dominant 24-2 win in the series opener on Thursday, won 11-10 in walk-off fashion in game two and finished Friday’s finale with an 11-3 win.
Here is a recap of the Tigers’ weekend:
Game one
Auburn lit up the scoreboard with 24 runs in the first five innings and belted five home runs en route to a lopsided 24-2 victory on Thursday. The Tigers’ 24 runs scored was the third most in a league game in program history.
With five players recording multiple hits, Auburn tallied a whopping 20 hits led by freshman Christ Rembert’s six-RBI performance and Eric Guavara’s four hits, including a grand slam. Ten of the Tigers’ 20 hits were for extra bases and their five home runs was a season-high.
“Disciplined at-bats up and down,” Auburn head coach Butch Thompson said. “We extended innings. We knew the left-handers had to be big tonight, and (Ike) Irish,(Cooper) McMurray and (Lucas) Steele were. Rembert and Guevara were two right-handers who gave us a lot tonight.”
Coming off a shorter rest period than usual, Cam Tilly recorded his third consecutive start on the mound for the Tigers and turned in a career-high five innings with six strikeouts while only allowing one run on two hits.
South Carolina struck for one run in the first inning, but it was all Auburn afterward as it scored five, seven, three and nine runs in the second through fifth innings, respectively.
After a scoreless first frame for the Tigers, Steele led off the bottom of the second with a solo shot to right field – his fifth home run of the season. Auburn kept the momentum, plating four more runs on a pair of RBI doubles from Deric Fabian and Rembert and an RBI single from Irish.
Rembert and McMurray both homered in the third and Guevara added an RBI-triple to push the Tigers ahead, 12-1.
In the fourth, Irish recorded his 200th career-hit in style with a three-run blast, his 13th of the season, making him the first Auburn player since 2016 to record 200 hits.
Leading 15-1 in the fifth inning, Auburn put up nine runs which was capped off by Guevara’s grand slam, which nearly cleared the batter's eye.
Ben Schorr worked the last two innings on the mound in relief of Tilly and struck out three while allowing an earned run on three hits.
Game two
In a back-and-forth affair that saw things all knotted up at 10 apiece heading into the home half of the ninth, Auburn used a walk-off bunt from Guevara to clinch the series, its seventh SEC series, with an 11-10 win.
The Tigers were outhit 17-to-13 and South Carolina’s pitching staff topped the Tigers’ by recording seven strikeouts, but Auburn never shied away when giving up a five-run cushion and going down by a run after a three-run sixth from the Gamecocks. A sacrifice fly from McMurray and Steele’s second home run of the series put the Tigers up by one heading into the seventh, keeping the Tigers in the race.
With a barrage of runs coming for the Tigers in Thursday night’s contest, they picked up right where they left off as Guevara got things started in the first with a two-run blast over the wall in left center.
South Carolina cut into its deficit with a solo-homer in the second, but the Tigers fired back with one of their own on an RBI-single that scored Fralick from second.
The Gamecocks matched their run total in series opener by the third inning with an RBI-single, but Auburn countered with a four-run fourth frame as Bristol Carter doubled down the right field line, plating Fabian, and Rembert recorded his second home run of the series with a three-run shot to put the Tigers up 7-2.
After giving up just one run a week ago against Tennessee, Auburn ace Sam Dutton allowed a season-high five earned runs, ending his day after four innings of work – his shortest start of the season. The Gamecocks recorded their seventh hit of the day against Dutton to cap off a three-run inning with an RBI-single that followed an RBI-double.
Auburn turned it over to John Armstrong in the fifth, who held the Gamecocks scoreless after three-straight innings of plating a run. However, that wouldn’t last long as KJ Scobey blasted a three-run shot for their second homer of the day.
Carson Myers entered in the sixth and held the Gamecocks scoreless while allowing just two hits. Closer Ryan Hetzler earned his first win of the season, finishing off the last two innings while surrendering two runs and on three hits and a strikeout.
South Carolina tied it up with two runs over the eighth and ninth frames, setting up Guevara’s walk-off bunt.
Game three
To cap off the Tigers’ action packed weekend at the plate, Auburn tallied 18 hits with three home runs – 11 total for the series – paced by a four-run fourth inning while scoring in every inning after to cap off the series with an 11-3 win.
The duo of Griffin Graves and Dylan Watts worked seven scoreless innings in relief of starter Christian Chatterton, who went two innings while giving up three runs on four hits. Graves earned the win with 3.1 scoreless innings and Watts closed out the final three with just one hit relinquished for his second save of the season.
After the Gamecocks took charge with a 3-0 lead after their first two at-bats with an RBI-double in the first and a two-run blast in the second, the Tigers put up two runs in the home half of the second as Bub Terrell left the yard for a two-run homer, driving in Steele who led off with a double.
The Tigers’ put up a crooked number in the fifth, highlighted by a three-run blast from McMurray,– his 40th career home run – added one in the sixth when Irish grounded into a double play to score one and another in the seventh on a Steele solo-blast – his third of the series.
Auburn added three insurance runs in the eighth on an RBI-double from Guevara to score Rembert. Irish followed with a single through the right side to score Guevara and Steele singled to center to score Irish two at-bats later.
The Tigers will be back in action on Tuesday for their final midweek matchup of the regular season against Jacksonville State with first pitch set for 6 p.m. CT at Plainsman Park. The game will be broadcasted on SECN+.
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