The Auburn Tigers (24-17-1, 8-11 SEC) opened up the weekend series in Columbia with an 8-3 win over the No. 3 South Carolina Gamecocks (34-7, 13-5 SEC).
“The guys did an amazing job,” head coach [autotag]Butch Thompson[/autotag] said. “We’ve been here before, and we’re at the stage now where this is a good win but we know we’ve got to get right back in the middle of this because we have to have more before we leave town.”
[autotag]Tommy Vail[/autotag] got the start and earned the win for Auburn in a 5-inning outing. [autotag]Tanner Bauman[/autotag] and [autotag]Will Cannon[/autotag] provided three and one inning(s) of relief respectively.
“I knew I had to go as deep as I could, trust the guys behind me and trust the bullpen,” Vail said Friday. “Luckily, I was able to give us a couple more good innings and get us in position to win. I was able to get some swings and misses up in the zone. I knew the defense was going to play well behind me. I knew I could fill it up and let them work.”
The Tigers got the scoring started in the first inning and the Gamecocks answered back. [autotag]Cole Foster[/autotag] hit a two-run homer in the top of the fourth that spared an Auburn rally.
Auburn added three runs in the top of the fifth inning to take a 6-1 lead. The Tigers tacked on two more runs in the top of the seventh inning and ended up winning 8-3.
The second game is set for Saturday at 3:00 p.m. CDT and will be televised on SEC Network+.
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