Feb. 21, 2009
AUBURN, Ala. - Trent Mummey had the first multi-homer game of his Auburn career but his two solo shots were not enough to carry an Auburn offense that could only muster six hits off of the Elon pitching staff in an 11-6 loss on Saturday afternoon at Plainsman Park. The loss evened the series at a game apiece heading into Sunday's series finale.
The Auburn pitching staff surrendered 14 hits, five walks and two hit batters to Elon. Despite just getting the six hits, Auburn was able to work seven walks off of the Elon pitching staff, with five coming in the same inning, but finished the game just 3-for-12 with runners on.
"Elon outplayed us today. They got a lot of base runners and we made some mistakes. You can't do that against a good-hitting team and they took advantage," Auburn Head Coach John Pawlowski said. "On the other side of it, we couldn't get anything going offensively. With the bases loaded, we could only score two runs. We just couldn't come up with the big hit and that was the difference today."
Elon scored five in the sixth to take a 6-3 lead and then added four runs in the top of the ninth to put Auburn away for good and earn starter Ken Ferrer (1-0) a win. Bradley Hendrix (0-1) took the loss, allowing four runs in 2.1 innings of relief work of Auburn starter Jon Luke Jacobs.
Elon (1-1) sent eight men to the plate in its five-run sixth, scoring all five runs with two outs in the inning. The big blow came off the bat of Pat Irvine, who hit a three-run home run to left off of reliever Scott Shuman.
Auburn (1-1) mounted a serious threat to Elon's 7-3 lead in the bottom of the eighth but could only push two runs across the plate despite drawing a total of five walks in the inning. After the first three Auburn hitters walked to load the bases, Brian Fletcher made it 7-4 with a sacrifice liner to left that Elon's Irvine made a nice diving grab on to rob Fletcher of a hit. Two hitters later Casey McElroy drew a bases loaded walk to make it 7-5 but Tony Caldwell popped up to second and last night's hero, Justin Hargett, hit a liner to right-center that Elon centerfielder Cory Harrilchak was able to chase down and end the inning.
Elon put the finishing touches on the win in the ninth by scoring four in the ninth , highlighted by Justin Hilt's two-out, three-run home run off of Michael Hurst.
Mummey, who had just four career home runs coming into the game, was 3-for-4 in the game with three runs and three RBI, hitting a lead-off home run in the sixth and a two-out, solo shot into the Elon bullpen in the ninth.
Jon Luke Jacobs made his first career start for Auburn on the hill, lasting into the fourth and allowing one run on six hits and two walks, striking out six, including five of the first nine hitters he faced.
Daniel Britt earned his first save of the year, entering in the eighth with Caldwell at the plate and the bases loaded, getting the final five outs of the game for Elon.
Auburn will send senior RHP Paul Burnside to the hill on Sunday in the rubber game of the series while Elon is expected to send LHP Harrilchak to the mound.
Elon 11, Auburn 6 (Feb 21, 2009 at Auburn, Ala.) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Elon................ 000 105 014 - 11 14 0 (1-1) Auburn.............. 101 001 021 - 6 6 2 (1-1) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Win-Ken Ferrer(1-0) Save-Daniel Britt(1) Loss-Bradley Hendrix(0-1) T-3:03 A-2837 HR ELON - Pat Irvine (1); Justin Hilt (1). HR AU - Trent Mummey 2 (2).
