Auburn baseball used a late-inning surge in Friday’s game with No. 20 Iowa to pull off a 7-5 win to open its stay at the Jax College Baseball Classic in Jacksonville, Florida.
Momentum stayed on the side of the Tigers in Saturday’s game with Wichita State as they powered through to knock off the Shockers, 19-8, to move to 2-0 on the weekend.
Auburn (6-0) was bound for greatness from the very beginning of the game. [autotag]Cooper Weiss[/autotag] led off the inning with a double, which paved the way for the next two batters to reach base via base on balls to bring [autotag]Cooper McMurray[/autotag] to the plate. On the first pitch, McMurray smashed a home run to right field to give Auburn a 4-0 advantage before the first out of the game was recorded.
Auburn outscored Wichita State 15-3 through the first four innings, then would add four more runs in the 6th inning to put the run-rule into effect. The Tigers ended with 10 total hits, with McMurray and [autotag]Bobby Peirce[/autotag] each recording two.
What is even more shocking is the number of walks that were issued to Auburn batters. Nine Auburn batters had a base on balls as part of their statline, six of those were walked multiple times. [autotag]Cale Stricklin[/autotag] was walked three times in the game while players such as [autotag]Ike Irish[/autotag], [autotag]Javon Hernandez[/autotag], and [autotag]Deric Fabian[/autotag] had two.
[autotag]Joseph Gonzalez[/autotag] picked up his second win of the season after striking out two batters and allowing three earned runs in 4.0 innings of work. [autotag]Zach Crotchfelt[/autotag] led the staff in strikeouts with three in 1 1/3 innings of relief.
Auburn will play one final game in Jacksonville this weekend, a date with No. 11 Virginia on Sunday at 3 p.m. CT. [autotag]Carson Myers[/autotag] will make his second start of the season for the Tigers after earning SEC Co-Pitcher of the Week honors after an eight strikeout day against Eastern Kentucky last Sunday.
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