New rules were introduced within SEC baseball this season, and it did not take long for Auburn to use them.
In the first midweek game of the 2023 season, Auburn traveled to Madison to face the North Alabama Lions in a neutral site affair at Toyota Field, home of the Rocket City Trash Pandas, the Double-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels. Auburn jumped out to a 6-0 1st inning lead and would cruise to an easy 13-1 victory in seven innings.
Reigning SEC Freshman of the Week, [autotag]Ike Irish[/autotag], got the Tigers on the board with a bases-loaded single to right field to score [autotag]Bobby Peirce[/autotag] from 3rd base to give Auburn the 1-0 lead. [autotag]Ryan Dyal[/autotag] and [autotag]Caden Hill[/autotag] followed Irish by also recording RBI singles in the inning. [autotag]Bryson Ware[/autotag] earned an RBI on a sacrifice fly while [autotag]Kason Howell[/autotag] plated a run on a fielder’s choice.
Peirce and [autotag]Brody Moss[/autotag] extended Auburn’s lead in the 3rd inning. Peirce scored two runs on a single down the left field line to push the Tigers’ lead to 8-0, and Moss scored Howell on a sacrifice fly with one out in the inning.
Auburn’s next three runs would come courtesy of the long ball. Peirce hit a solo shot in the 5th inning for his third RBI of the game to put Auburn ahead, 10-1. Ware joined the party in the 6th inning by hitting a two-run blast to extend Auburn’s lead to 12-1. Freshman [autotag]Chris Stanfield[/autotag] capped the scoring by singling home Foster in the 6th inning for his first collegiate RBI.
North Alabama’s lone run came in the 4th inning when Jackson Ferrigno hit a sacrifice fly to Kyle Machado from 3rd base to trim Auburn’s lead to 9-1 at that point in the game.
Peirce, Irish, and Ware each collected three hits on the night, with Peirce and Ware each plating three RBI. In his first start on the mound this season, senior [autotag]Konnor Copeland[/autotag] struck out six batters over 3.2 innings of work, allowing just three hits and one earned run. [autotag]John Armstrong[/autotag] and [autotag]Chase Isbell[/autotag] combined to strike out six batters over the final 3.1 innings to close the game.
Changes have been made to Auburn’s weekend schedule. It was announced late Tuesday night that Auburn’s weekend series against USC, which was originally scheduled to take place in Los Angeles, will now happen at Plainsman Park due to forecasted inclement weather expected in Southern California.
Game one of the series between the Tigers and Trojans is set for 6 p.m. CT on Friday.
| Runs | Hits | Errors | |
| AUBURN | 13 | 15 | 0 |
| NORTH ALABAMA | 1 | 5 | 2 |
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