March 22, 2009
AUBURN, Ala. - Auburn allowed four first-inning runs and was never able to recover from the early deficit as it dropped its series finale with No. 15 Arkansas, 12-6, on Sunday afternoon at Plainsman Park. Auburn had allowed just three first-inning runs coming into the game but surrendered four runs with two outs in first inning as Paul Burnside lasted just 2 2/3 innings in the start for Auburn.
"Anytime you lose three games in a weekend, especially in conference play, it's disappointing," Auburn Head Coach John Pawlowski said. "Arkansas beat us in every phase of the game. They scored four runs with two outs (in the first) and that put us behind the eight-ball right out of the gate. We kicked it around a bit (four errors) and consequently we didn't have enough firepower to overcome that."
Auburn (15-8, 2-4 SEC) had not allowed any first-inning runs since the second game of its series with Florida State, a span of 17 games, but as Arkansas did yesterday, it took advantage with two outs in innings, scoring the first run on a Burnside (0-2) wild pitch with a runner on third and two down before a Zach Cox single brought in a run and a double off the bat of Andrew Darr scored two.
Auburn got a run back to draw within three, 4-1, in the second as Tony Caldwell singled and scored when Ben Tschepikow's throw back to first on an inning-ending double play attempt went wide of the bag and pitcher Drew Smyly, who was covering, allowing Caldwell to score from second on the play.
The deficit grew to five as Arkansas scored two more in the top of the fourth off of Auburn reliever Scott Shuman, who walked the leadoff hitter Scott Lyons before giving up a single to right to Tschepikow. A throwing error by Joseph Sanders trying to get Tschepikow advancing to second allowed Lyons to score and Tschepikow to reach third, setting the table for a Jacob House sac fly to center that made it 6-1.
Arkansas (16-4, 6-0 SEC) tacked on two more in the top of the sixth off of Rus Harper as Tschepikow's triple scored Lyons and a single by Andy Wilkins scored Tshepikow to grow the lead to 8-1.
Casey McElroy's sixth-inning double off of Smyly scored Ben Jones from first to make it 8-2 and end Smyly's (2-0) day after 5 1/3 inning in which he allowed two runs (one earned) on five hits and three walks, striking out four.
Arkansas would answer Auburn's one with three runs in the top of the seventh, scoring on an error and two groundouts to go up 11-2 and then went up 12-2 on Ryan Cisterna's one-out, RBI double in the eighth off of Chris O'Neil.
Auburn tried to make things interesting in the eighth, scoring four times off of Arkansas reliever Justin Wells, with three runs coming with two outs in the inning.. Sanders led off with a double and scored on Caldwell's one-out single. An error on Arkansas left fielder Andrew Darr allowed Kevin Patteron to reach first before back-to-back, two-out RBI hits by Trent Mummey and Brian Fletcher finished the scoring in the inning.
Tschepikow finished the game 4-for-6 with a triple, two RBI and three runs scored while Leavitt and Cisterna each had three of Arkansas' 17 hits in the game.
Mummey finished the game 1-for-4 with a walk and a run scored, bringing his season tally up to 39 runs in 23 games. He has also reached base safely in 22 consecutive games.
Caldwell was 3-for-4 with two runs scored from the seven hole in the lineup while Sanders and McElroy each picked up two hits.
Auburn returns to the field on Tuesday night in Birmingham when it takes on Samford at 6pm CT on Samford's home field.
Arkansas 12, Auburn 6 (Mar 22, 2009 at Auburn, Ala.)
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Arkansas............ 400 202 310 - 12 17 3 (16-4, 6-0 SEC)
Auburn.............. 010 001 040 - 6 12 4 (15-8, 2-4 SEC)
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Win-Drew Smyly(2-0) Loss-Paul Burnside(0-2) T-3:22 A-2312
Weather: 64 degrees; Partly Cloudy
