April 22, 2006
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -
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Auburn's Evan Crawford and Florida's Bryan Augenstein waged a duel from the mound on Saturday but it was Augenstein's Gators that came away with a 4-1 victory in Saturday's SEC contest between the Tigers and Gators at UF's McKethan Stadium to even the series at a game apiece.
"Evan was really, really good, and so was Augenstein," AU Head Coach Tom Slater said. "We saw quite a pitchers duel from both sides today. Evan pitched to both sides of the plate with his fastball extremely well and he was in command the entire time."
Crawford was masterful for the Tigers (19-23, 7-10 SEC) from the mound. After surrendering a pair of singles in the first, he did not allow a Gator hit over the next four innings before Matt LaPorta tagged him for a two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth to put UF up, 2-0.
Crawford allowed just four hits on the day in 7.0 innings, striking out six and walking three but fell to 4-5 on the year.
Augenstein was just as dominant, giving up a pair of hits in the first seven innings of play before allowing a leadoff double to Josh Stapleton in the top of the eighth and giving way to UF closer Darren O'Day.
Augenstein struckout six and walked three in moving to 8-3 on the season.
O'Day, though not as sharp as the starters, allowed four hits in 2.0 innings, including an RBI single to Mike Bianucci but did earn his seventh save of the season.
Luke Greinke went 2-for-4 at the plate for the Tigers and is 5-for-9 in the series thus far.
The two teams will play the rubber game of the series beginning at noon CT on Sunday. Junior Chris Dennis (2-3) gets the starting nod for the Tigers while Florida (24-19, 6-11) has not announced its starter yet.