Although Auburn is just 1-8 in SEC play to start the baseball season, the Tigers continued rolling in the non-conference on Wednesday by taking down the UAB Blazers 10-4 at Regions Park in Birmingham.
Auburn starting pitcher [autotag]Christian Herberholz[/autotag] (1-1) got the ball for the third straight mid-week game but struggled through 2 2/3 innings, allowing 4 runs on 5 hits in the contest.
The Tigers bullpen faired much better, as [autotag]Parker Carlson[/autotag], [autotag]Alex Petrovic[/autotag], [autotag]Zach Crotchfelt[/autotag], and [autotag]Hayden Murphy[/autotag] combined for 6 1/3 innings of 1-hit ball. Petrovic, Crotchfelt, and Murphy allowed just one base runner over the game’s final 5 frames.
On the offensive side, Auburn exploded for 10+ runs for the second non-conference game in a row. Infielder [autotag]Cooper McMurray[/autotag] and senior captain [autotag]Bobby Peirce[/autotag] happened to be the stars of the night. After Cooper Weiss drove in the first Auburn run with a single in the top of the first, McMurray and Peirce combined to drive in 6 of the next 9 Tiger tallies. Both players homered, while McMurray contributed 3 total hits and 3 RBIs.
Peirce had the biggest blast of the game in the sixth inning when he roped a 2-run, go-ahead home run into the seats to give Auburn a 6-5 lead. The 2-run homer was the beginning of a 7-run 8th inning that was bookended by another Pierce RBI single.
Auburn’s mid-week victories have yet to translate into weekend play, but we’ll see if that trend changes when the Tigers welcome No. 4 ranked Tennessee to Plainsman Park on Friday.
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