March 11, 2008
Auburn, Ala. -
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All nine starters recorded at least one hit and seven different players hit doubles as Auburn cruised to a 17-0 win over Appalachian State on Tuesday night at Plainsman Park. The 17 runs on 16 hits both represented season-highs for Auburn, which improved to 11-4 on the season.
"We did a nice job of working counts. Up-and-down the lineup I thought we had good at-bats throughout the game," Auburn Head Coach Tom Slater said.
Mike Bianucci led the way offensively, driving in a season-high five runs on a double and a home run while Justin Jones (1-for-1, 2B), Hunter Morris (1-for-4, 2 BB, 2B), Joseph Sanders (1-for-5, BB, HR) and David Cunningham (2-for-4, 2B) drove in two runs apiece.
Luke Greinke (2-1) earned the win for Auburn, tossing 6.0 innings and striking out a career-high seven Appalachian State hitters, allowing more than one hitter to reach base in an innings just twice all night.
"The slider was working well for me tonight," Greinke said. "Coach Thompson called a good game and we were able to get them off balance. When guys got on base I was able to pitch with more of a strikeout mentality than letting them put the ball in play and it paid off."
"Luke set the tone," Slater said, "He commanded the strike zone with all of his pitches. I thought he had some good tilt on his breaking ball and slider. It all starts with pitching."
Grant Dayton followed with an inning of perfect relief with one strikeout before turning it over to Austin Hubbard, who pitched the final two frames, walking one and striking out one.
After taking a 1-0 lead in the first when Trent Mummey (2-for-2, 2B, 2 BB, 4 R) scored on a wild pitch, Auburn opened the flood gates in the second, sending 11 men to the plate and scoring seven runs on six hits and two walks. Bianucci and Morris each had two-RBI doubles in the inning off of Appalachian State starter Cameron Ohl (0-1).
Auburn batted around again in the seventh, scoring five runs on four hits as both Bianucci and Sanders hit home runs to center. Bianucci's homer was his third of the season and 25th of his career, and ended his longest career homerless drought at 11 games.
Auburn closes out its pre-SEC season on Wednesday night against Appalachian State (7-7) at 6pm. Fr. LHP Cory Luckie (2-1) gets the start for Auburn while Appalachian State will send Jr. RHP Aubrey Edens (1-0) to the hill.