AUBURN, Ala. – Scoring multiple runs in four consecutive innings, No. 5 Auburn belted five home runs and blasted South Carolina 24-2 Thursday in a run-rule victory at Plainsman Park.
The 24 runs were tied for the third most in a SEC game in program history, including the most since 1965.
Five players collected multiple hits, including three with three or more, and six drove in multiple runs, including three with four or more. Ten of the team’s 20 hits were for extra-bases, including a season-high five home runs.
“Disciplined at-bats up and down,” Auburn head coach Butch Thompson said. “We extended innings. We knew the left handers had to be big tonight, and Irish, McMurray and Steele were. Rembert and Guevara were two right handers who gave us a lot tonight.”
After the Gamecocks (26-24, 5-20 SEC) scored a run in the top of the first, Auburn (34-15, 14-11 SEC) answered with five, seven, three and nine runs in the second through fifth innings, respectively.
Leading off the bottom of the second, Lucas Steele tied the score with a laser to right field, his fifth home run of the season, which left the bat at 113 miles per hour. The Tigers added four more runs in the inning on RBI doubles from Deric Fabian and Chris Rembert, and an RBI single from Ike Irish.
Rembert and Cooper McMurray homered in the next inning with Eric Guevara adding and RBI triple to put Auburn ahead 12-1. The home run was Rembert’s eighth of the season, including his fourth in the last six league games, and McMurray’s 11th of the year.
Irish accounted for Auburn’s three runs in the fourth inning with a home run, his team-best 13th of the year, which marked his 200th career hit. The junior is the first Auburn player since 2016 to reach the milestone.
“Seeing that one leave, it was a relief. It was cool, my 100th and 200th were both home runs,” Irish said. “We were facing a sinker, slider guy, so we knew we had to get him up in the zone if we wanted to be successful. We were relentless tonight. It’s good from the offense, and the pitching staff giving up only two runs was also huge.”
Leading 15-1 after four innings, the Tigers exploded for nine runs in the fifth, with Guevara’s grand slam that hit off the top of the batter’s eye serving as the exclamation point on Auburn’s offensive explosion.
Every spot in Auburn’s lineup totaled at least one hit, with Guevara and Chase Fralick pacing the Tigers’ 20-hit output with four hits apiece. Rembert drove in six runs on three hits while scoring three runs, and Steele crossed home plate four times.
Baserunners were aplenty, with Auburn totaling 10 extra-base hits, drawing five walks and being hit by pitch five times.
Cam Tilly (3-1) earned the victory as he turned in a career-high 5.0 innings, striking out six while allowing only one run on two hits.
“It felt great, but it was really easy with the offense,” Tilly said. “The defense played well behind me. Getting ahead early in counts and putting them away.”
Ben Schorr pitched the final 2.0 innings, striking out three while allowing an earned run, ending the game after seven innings.
Looking to win its seventh SEC series of the season, Auburn plays a doubleheader Friday beginning at 1 p.m. CT, necessitated by Saturday’s stormy forecast.
“A great job tonight, but a series is not decided between these two clubs,” Thompson said. “I hope there’s a lot of fight and urgency with this club and what I saw tonight gives me hope, how they kept respecting and playing the game, that they’ll come out ready to play.”
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on X: @jeff_shearer