AUBURN, Ala. - The Auburn Tigers completed the three-game sweep of the Wright State Raiders Sunday afternoon, winning 9-4 behind balanced offensive production. The win also earned the Tigers their second series win in as many chances to start the season.
Auburn wasted no time getting to work in the bottom half of the first. Eric Snow led off the game with a single into left field, which was immediately followed by an Ike Irish home run on the very next pitch. The blast was the first of the season for Irish.
The First Team All-SEC catcher continued to affect the game from behind the dish as well. In Wright State’s first three offensive half innings, they had four baserunners cut down. The first two were caught stealing in traditional fashion, the third was tagged out after over-sliding into second and the last was picked off at first after a pitch home. The baserunning woes cut short an inning that looked very promising for the Raiders.
“Any of those could have sparked their offense,” Tiger head coach Butch Thompson said. “The word I would use is composure. The defense was tremendous. I think we had one of our most enjoyable defensive days.”
Irish was involved again in the bottom of the third, scoring another run for the Tigers following a Cooper McMurray knock that pushed him to third and an RBI groundout from Deric Fabian that brought him in. Auburn found more insurance in the fourth when East Carolina transfer Bristol Carter hit his first long ball in an Auburn uniform. The two-run shot was hit to the deepest part of the ballpark in left center.
Tiger starter Christian Chatterton exited after pitching four and a third innings. He left a bases-loaded, one-out situation in the hands of Cam Tilly. The reliever almost managed to get out of the inning unscathed, allowing just one run to score on an RBI groundout.
In his second start of the season, freshman Chatterton finished with a line of 4.1 innings pitched, four hits, one earned run and three strikeouts.
Wright State got back into the contest in a hurry in the next inning. Back-to-back singles followed by a rocket shot off the bat of Cam Gilkerson that plated three Raiders cut the Auburn lead to just one.
Raider reliever Garrett Peters cruised right along through his first seven batters, keeping his team in striking distance. Peters threw first-pitch strikes to all of them and had thrown just three balls out of his 21 pitches. But on the 22nd pitch of his outing, Bub Terrell caught up to Peters, sending one well over the wall in right. One pitch later, it was Cole Edwards’ turn to run into one. He hit the first home run of his Auburn career over the new viewing area on top of the wall in left to put the Tigers up 7-4.
The next inning only saw the lead increase. The Tigers loaded the bases thanks to a hit-by-pitch, a single and a walk. Fabian then drove in two more off an RBI single to extend Auburn’s lead to five.
Junior Hayden Murphy came in and did his job, getting the final three outs of the ballgame to complete the sweep. Murphy pushed 96-plus miles per hour by multiple Raiders on his way to close the game.
Auburn had hits from all nine players in the lineup, and RBIs from five of them.
“When everybody contributes, it takes pressure off of one or two guys,” said Thompson. “That’s one of the reasons why we were ready to go early and we distanced ourselves late. When everybody contributes, I love that.”
The win moves the Tigers to 7-1 on the season. They will have midweek action at home against Samford on Tuesday before heading to Arlington, Texas to compete against Ohio State, Oregon State and Baylor.
