The Auburn Tiger (34-22-1 SEC 17-13) started their regional off in a bad way losing an 11-inning game to the Penn Quakers. The Tigers fell 6-3 and will be forced to win four in a row to advance to the super regionals.
The first round of the Auburn regional was an Offensive snozzefest for the Tigers as they only managed 4 hits across the 11 innings of play. Only three of those hits came in the first nine innings.
“Even though I give the starter a lot of credit I think Kason would agree that our right handers at least for the first time of the lineup got out the same way,” said Auburn head coach Butch Thompson.
Auburn’s struggles at the plate are apparent in their scoring as two of the Tigers runs came in the sixth inning as the runs came across due to a Cooper McMurray walk and a Kason Howell groundout. Auburn would hold the 2-1 lead until the top of the eighth.
Appel Jackson rocketed one over the right field wall to score two and give Penn the 3-2 lead in the top of the eighth. Auburn would respond in the bottom of the eighth with a Brody Moss walk that brought in the tying runner.
Neither team could score in the ninth as the game continued into extras.
Auburn fans were treated to hard to watch free baseball, as Penn would add three runs in the top of the 11th. One run from a hard-hit RBI double Ryan Taylor and two more with three straight bunts with the RBIs going to Calvin Brown and Cole Palis.
“That’s how we got to Omaha last year,” said Thompson about the bunts, “That’s exactly what they should do in the situation and they executed really well.”
Pitching for an extra innings game can take a village, just as much as it takes to raise a child.
4 pitchers is what it took for Auburn to finish this one. Starting on the day was Chase Allsup who went the first five with an earned run three hits and seven strikeouts.
Tanner Bauman and Will Cannon both put in 2.2 innings of work, each gave up two earned runs, but Cannon did give up five hits to Bauman’s three.
Zach Crotchfelt gave the Tigers the final 0.2 innings in which in his 12 pitches he got the final outs Auburn needed to get to the bottom of the 11th.
The offense continued to stagnate with a three-up three-down inning that sent the Tigers packing to the loser’s side of the bracket with an Auburn fell 6-3.
“I’m reminded that true success is defined with effort and process and not results,” said Thompson, “and I thought I got great effort from our ball club tonight.”
Auburn will play Southern Miss Tomorrow June 3rd in a elimination game at 2:00 CT.
