The Auburn Tigers (20-13-1, 5-8 SEC) picked up an 8-4 victory over the Alabama Crimson Tide (24-11, 4-9 SEC) in the first game of the series Friday night at Sewell Thomas Stadium in Tuscaloosa.
“We needed somebody to step up,” Auburn head coach [autotag]Butch Thompson[/autotag] said following Friday’s win. “It was his best outing. It was clean, it was efficient, it was great baseball. We needed this one on the road and Tommy absolutely silenced a very good lineup.”
[autotag]Tommy Vail[/autotag] got the start for the Tigers and let no runs score and only allowed two hits in a 6.2-inning effort that also saw four strikeouts and only four walks.
“It felt good to get the weekend off to a good start,” Vail said. “It’s my job to go as deep as I can and save the bullpen so we have more bullets to fire later on. It felt good to throw up zeros and know the guys behind me were playing their tails off.”
Luke Holman got the start for the Crimson Tide and allowed four runs off of four hits, walked three batters and struck out six.
[autotag]Chris Stanfield[/autotag] got the scoring started with a two-run homer in the second inning. [autotag]Caden Green[/autotag] singled home two more runs in the seventh inning.
[autotag]Cooper McMurray [/autotag] singled to bring another run in during the eighth inning. The Tigers tacked on their last three runs in the ninth inning when Green reached on an error that allowed Stanfield to score from second and when [autotag]Cole Foster[/autotag] hit a two-run homer to extend the lead to 8-0.
“Throughout the night my at-bats got better and I happened to hit a hanging changeup and did what I could with it,” Foster said.
The Crimson Tide scored four runs in the bottom of the ninth inning, three of which were forced in by walks or batters being hit by pitches.
The first pitch for the second game of the series is set for Saturday at 6:00 p.m. CST.
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"We needed this one on the road and Tommy absolutely silenced a very good lineup."
🗣️ » @3strikes_AU #WarEagle
— Auburn Baseball (@AuburnBaseball) April 15, 2023
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