Tag: Sonny DiChiara

Sonny DiChiara, Joseph Gonzalez win SEC Players of the Week

Auburn baseball’s Sonny DiChiara and Sonny Gonzalez both took home weekly honors from the SEC.

Fresh off a series victory over Vanderbilt, first baseman [autotag]Sonny DiChiara[/autotag] and pitcher [autotag]Jospeh Gonzalez[/autotag] won weekly SEC awards. DiChiara was named Co-Player of the Week and Gonzalez was named Co-Pitcher of the Week, the conference announced Monday.

It is the first time in program history Auburn has had two players win an award in the same week. Gonzalez is Auburn’s first Pitcher of the Week this season and DiChiara is Auburn’s first Player of the Week since 2018.

DiChiara hit .412 over the weekend with three home runs, eight RBI, and hit safely in all four games last week. He led the league with 18 total bases.

Through eight weeks this season, the Hoover, Alabama, native leads the country in average (.452), on-base percentage (.595), and slugging percentage (.946) and leads the Tigers in doubles (13), homers (11), and RBI (32).

Gonzalez had Auburn’s first complete game on Sunday to lead Auburn to an 8-2 win over Vanderbilt and clinch the series. He is the first Tiger to throw a complete game since Casey Mize in 2018. He tied his career high with eight strikeouts and did not allow a walk.

In seven appearances and six starts, Gonzalez leads Auburn with a 4-0 record and 1.95 ERA. He’s 2-0 with a 2.40 ERA in a pair of SEC starts.

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Auburn first baseman named to Golden Spikes award watchlist

Sonny DiChiara is the sixth Auburn player since 2016 to make the watchlist.

An Auburn baseball player has been named to the Golden Spikes Award watchlist.

[autotag]Sonny DiChiara[/autotag], the first baseman for the Tigers and a recent transfer from Samford, has been named as one of 45 players on the midseason watchlist for the award, which is awarded to the best amateur player in baseball across both high school and college by USA Baseball. DiChiara is one of 11 SEC baseball players named to the watchlist.

DiChiara is certainly one to watch. He currently leads the country in batting average (.461) and on-base percentage (.616) and is second in slugging percentage (.921). His on-base percentage is 25 points higher than anyone else in the country. He also leads the team in home runs and is tied for first on the team in doubles.

He’s the sixth player since 2016 to make the midseason watchlist as an Auburn Tiger, the most recent one being pitcher former Auburn pitcher and current Cleveland Guardians player Tanner Burns.

With DiChiara’s streak of hot play, Auburn baseball has started the season 19-9 overall and 5-4 in conference play. The Tigers are currently coming off an in-conference series win against LSU last Saturday.

DiChiara will look to continue his so-far stellar production when Auburn takes on UAB on Tuesday and then begins a three-game in-conference series against the Vanderbilt Commodores beginning on Friday.

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Auburn baseball clobbers the Rebels in game two

The bats come alive as Auburn jumps all over No. 1 Ole Miss.

On Friday, the Tigers were able to knock off the No. 1 ranked Ole Miss Rebels by a score of 19-5. Game two was very different from the Rebels’ 13-6 victory on Thursday evening.

The Rebels struck first in the top of the third inning when Justin Bench hit a double to left field that scored one run. It didn’t take long for the Tigers to strike back. Sonny DiChiara got the scoring started with a sacrifice fly that plated the Tigers’ first run of the game. The Tigers grabbed three more runs in the bottom of the third inning to make it a 4-1 score heading into the fourth inning.

The fourth inning was very similar in Auburn’s successful approaches at the plate. Mike Bello and Blake Rambusch would hit back-to-back doubles to give Auburn yet another run. Two batters later, DiChiara delivered yet again with a two-run homer for the Tigers. The scoring never went away for the heavy-hitting Tigers on Friday evening.

Rambusch hit yet another double in the bottom of the sixth to score Bello again. In the top of the seventh, the Rebels were able to push across two more runs making it 9-3. Yet again in the bottom of the seventh, the Tigers’ bats were put on display. Bello and Rambusch both had RBIs and Kason Howell delivered a three-run bomb.

The top of the eighth brought two more runs for the Hotty Toddy, but it wasn’t enough. In the bottom of the eighth, Butch Thompson’s squad added four more.

The Tigers’ scoring efforts were led by Rambusch and DiChiara each with four RBIs. Howell added another three RBIs. An interesting fact is those three batters were one, two, and three in the lineup for the Tigers in game two. Starting pitcher Hayden Mullins (2-1) picked up the win. He pitched five innings allowing just two hits on one run. On the other side, Ole Miss’s starting pitcher Derek Diamond(3-1) took the loss on the night. He pitched 3.1 innings while giving up four walks and five runs. It was a fun night of baseball, to say the least at Plainsman Park.

The Tigers improve to 14-5 on the year while the Rebels will fall to 14-4. Game three is the final game of the series between the two. With the series being split, Auburn will look to take the series against the nation’s No. 1 team on Saturday in the rubber match.

The first pitch is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. CT. The game can be seen on SEC Network+.

Auburn baseball shuts out Yale to extend their winning streak

Auburn bats stay hot, Tigers win fourth-straight.

In the first of three games against Yale, the Auburn Tigers bats stayed hot on Friday night.

After Jordan Armstrong took the mound in the top of the first inning, Sonny DiChiara got the Tigers on the board in the bottom of the inning. He hit a two-run shot that would bring Brody Moore home for the 2-0. It was DiChiara’s first home run of the 2022 season. It was all the offense that Auburn would need but they were far from done.

Third baseman Blake Rambusch would get his first of two RBIs in the second when his single to left field brought Kason Howell around to score. The Tigers would take on a pair of runs in the third inning to make it 5-0. Six of the 15 hits on the night were extra-base hits. DiChiara hit his first double and first home runs. Brody Moore, Ryan Dyal, Bryson Ware, and Josh Hall each added doubles as well.

Jordan Armstrong would end up pitching 5.1 with 11 strikeouts, four hits allowed, and one hit batter. John Armstrong would finish out the sixth inning striking out both batters on nine pitches. Chase Allsup and Carson Swilling each pitched an inning with some control issues. The duo combined for three strikeouts and three walks.

Ben Bosse closed out the game by striking out the side in the top of the ninth inning. Auburn improved to 4-1 while Yale lost their first game of the season, and the first game played for the program since 2020. Kipp Grant took the loss as he went four innings with 10 hits allowed and six earned runs.