March 29, 2009
AUBURN, Ala. - Auburn connected for five home runs, accounting for eight of the team's 11 runs, as Auburn claimed its second SEC series victory of the season with an 11-10 win over Vanderbilt on Sunday afternoon at Plainsman Park. Hunter Morris finished the day 3-for-5 at the plate with two doubles and one of Auburn's homers, driving in two runs and scoring two more.
The win improved Auburn's record to 18-9, 4-5 SEC while Vanderbilt dropped to 17-10, 3-6 SEC.
"You look back at every run that was scored and when it comes right down to it, in college baseball you are never out of a ballgame and we needed every run we could get today," Auburn Head Coach John Pawlowski said. "After losing Friday we responded and won a close game yesterday and what turned out to be a close ballgame today."
Taylor Thompson (2-1) earned his second win in as many starts this season, taking the ball into the fifth and allowing four runs on six hits and two walks, striking out two before turning it over to the bullpen, which kept the game interesting by allowing six runs on nine hits and a walk in four innings of work by three pitchers.
"I felt like I had all of my stuff today; I was able to spot my fastball and I had great offensive support behind me," Thompson said. "It's always a confidence booster to get a win."
Trent Mummey, Kevin Patterson, Brian Fletcher, Justin Hargett and Morris each connected for home runs in the game, bringing the season total up to 58 on the year, which ties the 2008 team for seventh on the home runs list in a single season. The five-homer game was the ninth in Auburn history and the second this year as Auburn has now had 18 multi-homer games this season.
"Everyone put good swings on the ball today. We have some strong guys with really good swings and we have proven that we are going to hit balls out of the yard, but I don't think anyone here has really tried to do that," Morris said.
Auburn took a 1-0 lead in the first on Tony Caldwell's RBI single, which scored Morris from second and then went up 3-0 in the second on Mummey's 11th home run of the season, a shot to the scoreboard in left-center, tying him with Joseph Sanders for the team lead. Auburn has now out-scored its opponents 59-19 over the first two innings of games.
Vanderbilt cut the lead to a run at 3-2 in the fourth off of Thompson as Joe Loftus lofted a two-run home run over the wall in left only to be matched by Auburn in the bottom half of the inning as Patterson hit a one-out home run to right-center and Hargett walked and scored on a Joseph Sanders infield single to put Auburn back up by three, 5-2.
Brian Fletcher's seventh home run of the year made the cushion five runs at 7-2 as he sent a 2-0 pitch back out to left with Ben Jones on first after drawing a one-out walk.
Vanderbilt was again able to cut into the Auburn lead, scoring three times in the top of the sixth, knocking Thompson out of the game while facing three Auburn pitchers in the inning. Thompson allowed a leadoff single to Steven Liddle and then walked Curt Casali, ending his day. Chris O'Neil faced just one hitter out of the bullpen, allowing a double to Aaron Westlake before giving way to Michael Hurst. Hurst coaxed Andrew Giobbi into a RBI groundout for the first out of the inning and then fanned Loftus before Jason Esposito's single scored Westlake to make it a 7-5 game.
Auburn answered Vanderbilt's three runs in the top of the sixth with three in the bottom half as Hargett led off the inning with his third home run of the year before Morris scored two more with his sixth blast of the season, a two-run shot that also scored Sanders to make it 10-5.
After a scoreless seventh for both sides, Vanderbilt was again able to chip into Auburn's lead, scoring a single run on Espositp's one-out RBI double that scored Westlake only to have Auburn answer and score what would turn out to be a crucial run in the bottom of the inning. Trent Mummey drew a one-out walk, stole second and third and scored on Caldwell's RBI single to left to give Auburn what seemed like a comfortable five-run lead with Austin Hubbard on the mound.
Vanderbilt would not go down easily in the ninth, however, scoring four times after two outs were made in the inning. Liddle and Curt Casali hit back-to-back doubles and Westlake hit a RBI single, bringing Giobbi to the plate. The right fielder connected on a 0-1 pitch for his first home run of the year to make it a one-run game with Loftus coming to the plate. The left fielder, who had hommered in the fourth, saw two Hubbard pitches before grounding out to short to end the game.
Caldwell finished the day 2-for-4 with a pair of RBI while Sanders was also 2-for-4 with a double, a walk and a RBI. Mummey was 1-for-4 with a walk and two RBI, scoring twice to bring his season total up to 44 on the season, which is five shy of his freshman-year tally of 49 in 53 games.
The series victory was the first SEC series in which Auburn lost the opener and rebounded to win the next two since doing it to Kentucky in the third series of the 2006 season. It was also Auburn's first series win over Vanderbilt since 2002.
Auburn returns to the diamond on Tuesday night in Mobile at 6pm CT when it faces South Alabama at Stanky Field.
Auburn 11, Vanderbilt 10 (Mar 29, 2009 at Auburn, Ala.)
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Vanderbilt.......... 000 203 014 - 10 15 0 (17-10, 3-6 SEC)
Auburn.............. 120 223 01X - 11 12 1 (18-9, 4-5 SEC)
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Win-Taylor Thompson(2-1) Loss-Nick Christiani(3-1) T-3:09 A-1922
HR VU - Andrew Giobbi (1); Joe Loftus (3).
HR AU - Trent Mummey (11); Hunter Morris (6); Brian Fletcher (8); Kevin Patterson (5); Justin Hargett (3).
Weather: 56 degrees; Partly Cloudy
