The Auburn Tigers (13-3, 0-0) took care of business on Tuesday night at Toyota Field, defeating the Troy Trojans (12-6, 0-0) 8-2 thanks to a stellar night on the mound.
Junior pitcher Conner McBride made his fourth consecutive midweek start and collected his third win on the young season. McBride had excellent command of the strike zone, and had his off speed working extremely well. He pitched five innings and gave up just one hit, putting the Tigers in prime position to take control.
“I’m just thankful to Butch [Thompson], coaches, [Everett] Teaford for giving me this opportunity,” McBride said. “I’m just trying to do my job the best I can and execute pitches and win baseball games for us in the midweek.”
McBride was not the only Tiger pitcher who had a good outing. After McBride’s solid five, junior John Armstrong came in and threw a 1-2-3 sixth inning, striking out two Trojan batters. Will Cannon, another junior right hander, followed Armstrong. He pitched two solid innings of one hit ball, punching out three of the seven batters he faced. Senior lefty Tanner Bauman came in to close out the game, working around some traffic on the basepaths before sealing the deal for Auburn.
Tiger pitchers issued just three free passes and struck out nine, carving up a quality Troy lineup.
“For the level of team that we’re playing, for the pitches that I watched, the little things, the consistent side of the pitching staff, that was my favorite game so far in this season,” head coach Butch Thompson said. “McBride was great, Armstrong was tremendous in the sixth, Cannon needed the work, he gave us the seventh and eighth. Bauman was the only one who tried to make it weird there at the end, but I thought it was consistent.”
On the offensive side, it was a steady and balanced attack that allowed Auburn to slowly run away with their lead. The Tigers had three players go for multi-hit games, most notably sophomore Chris Stanfield who tallied three hits and an RBI.
Senior infielder Caden Green’s solo shot in the seventh extended Auburn’s home run streak, as the Tigers have now left the yard in every game this season. An inning later, redshirt junior Cooper McMurray would add another bomb over the center field fence to put the Tigers up 8-2.
It was a tremendous scene for baseball, as 6,138 fans packed into Toyota Field, home to the Rocket City Trash Pandas minor league squad. With mostly Auburn fans in attendance, the Tigers were able to go on the road and experience a great Auburn crowd at the same time.
“This was good for us to go on the road and handle a great, great, great environment,” Thompson said.
Now the Tigers will look ahead to their daunting SEC schedule, which starts next week at top-10 Vanderbilt. Green and his squad are no stranger to the grind of one of the best conferences in baseball, and are ready for the tall task ahead.
“Keep chopping,” Green said. “Just keep linking up as a team, keep building confidence, having faith in one another, and we’ll be just fine.”
The Tigers will make the trip to Nashville, Tennessee this weekend for the series against the No. 8 Commodores. First pitch for Friday’s game is set for 6 p.m. CT with the Auburn Sports Network airing its coverage starting at 5:45. The game will also be available to view on SEC Network+.
