April 16, 2008
AUBURN, Ala. -
Ryan McCrory's pinch-hit, two-run home run was the first of back-to-back home runs by South Alabama that snapped a 1-1 tie in the top of the seventh as Auburn fell, 7-1, on Wednesday night at Plainsman Park. The loss drops Auburn's record to 22-16 while South Alabama improves to 21-16.
"Offensively it was a really bad night at the plate for Auburn," head coach Tom Slater said. "We have been so good offensively all year that I'd like to think its and aberration. South Alabama came in with a team ERA over six and we could only score one run on eight hits, that's not a good night at the plate for us at all."
South Alabama had taken a 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth on Ryan Bohanan's sacrifice fly only to have Auburn answer it in the bottom half of the inning on Kevin Patterson's RBI groundout that scored Brian Fletcher, who had tripled to lead off the inning, making it 1-1.
It stayed that way for the next two innings as Taylor Thompson (2-4) mowed down the first five hitters he faced, striking out the side in the top of the fifth. But a leadoff double by Bohanan preceded McCrory's blast to right and then Bunky Kateon took one out over the wall in left to make it 4-1 and knock Thompson out of the game.
South Alabama would tack on three more in the inning as Clint Toomey singled in a pair of runs and scored on David Doss' sacrifice fly that made it 7-1.
Trent Mummey and David Cunningham both went 2-for-4 at the plate for Auburn with Cunningham collecting a double in his first at-bat of the game.
Michael Raia (1-0) earned the win as South Alabama used seven pitchers on the night.
Auburn resumes SEC action on Friday when it travels to Nashville, Tenn., to take on Vanderbilt. Game times are 6pm CT on Friday, noon on Saturday in a game televised by CSS and 1pm on Sunday.