March 6, 2009
AUBURN, Ala. - Auburn smoked four first-inning home runs, scoring seven times in the frame, and road the dominating pitching of Grant Dayton en route to an 11-2, series-opening win over Brown on Friday night at Plainsman Park. Brian Fletcher ended the night with two home runs as Auburn hit five four-baggers to bring the season total to 25 on the year. Joseph Sanders' first-inning monster shot to left tied him for the national lead with seven round-trippers on the year.
"That was the best offensive approach we have had early in a game all season. Not just because we hit four home runs in the inning, which you don't see too often, but I thought we eliminated his (Brown starter Will Weidig) breaking ball and got some fastballs to hit and we put really good swings on it," Auburn Coach John Pawlowski said.
With Auburn leading 7-0 after one inning, Dayton cruised through his seven full innings of work, allowing five hits while striking out six. The lefty did not allow a hit until there was one out in the fifth and a pair of errors in the sixth led to both of Brown's runs as he picked up his first win of the year to move to 1-1.
"We threw up seven runs in the first inning so I was really comfortable on the mound. Then we came back out and held them to zero. That makes it real easy to pitch," Dayton said.
"Grant did a really good job. We didn't play good defense, we kicked it around a little bit. His composure showed because he was able to pitch through that and we were able to get seven strong innings from him," Pawlowski said.
Auburn, which has now won four straight to move to 6-4 on the season, finished the night with 11 base hits, nine of them going for extra-bases (two doubles, two triples and five home runs)
Trent Mummey led off Auburn's half of the first with his fifth home run of the year, taking a 3-1 pitch over the wall in left-center. Sanders then sent a rocket over the wall in left for Auburn's first first-inning back-to-back home runs since the 2005 season. Auburn was far from done in the inning as Ben Jones singled to center and Tony Caldwell drew a walk before Fletcher smoked his second home run of the season. Wes Gilmer followed by getting hit by a pitch and then scored as Casey McElroy blasted the first pitch he saw to left for his second home run in as many at bats, giving Dayton the big cushion to work with.
"That first inning was exciting and electric. A lot of guys are stepping up and really swinging the bat," Fletcher said.
Fletcher took the fourth pitch he saw in the third inning over the wall in right, completing his second career multi-homer game and moving Auburn's lead up to 8-0. He finished the night 2-for-4 at the plate, driving in four runs.
"I thought I was seeing the ball well, especially my first at bat, and that started carrying over into the next couple and I was lucky enough that the ball went out," Fletcher said.
Brown (1-2) got a pair of runs back in the sixth as Ryan Zrenda scored when Kevin Patterson couldn't handle Matt Nuzzo's liner to first after leading off the inning with a single to right. Pete Greskoff closed the scoring with his sacrifice fly to center, scoring Dan Shaprio, who had singled to center earlier in the inning.
Three extra-base hits accounted for Auburn's final three runs in the game as McElroy, Justin Hargett and Mummey went triple, double, triple, respectively, off of Brown reliever Rob Wilcox before Jones' sacrifice liner to left scored Mummey for the 11-2 advantage.
Taylor Thompson threw the final two innings for Auburn, allowing a walk to the first hitter he faced before settling down and retiring the next six hitters.
The five home run game was the first by an Auburn squad since March 22, 1998 when Scott Pratt, Josh Etheredge, Jamie Kersh, Todd Faulkner and Heath Kelly each went yard in a 19-5 win at Georgia.
Auburn's 25 home runs is second in the nation behind New Mexico State's 29 while Sanders tied Alabama's Kent Matthes for the individual national lead.
Mummey, who extended his hitting streak to a personal-best nine games with his first-inning homer, scored two times on the night to up his total to 21 on the year. He entered the game in a three-way tie in the nation for the most runs scored in the country.
Weidig (0-2) took the loss for Brown, allowing eight runs on seven hits in five innings.
The two teams will play a double header starting at 1pm CT on Saturday. Auburn will throw R-Fr. RHP Jon Luke Jacobs (0-0) in the first game and So. RHP Ty Kelley (0-0) in the second game while Brown is scheduled to start So. LHP Mark Gormley (1-0) in the game one and So. RHP Josh Feit (0-0) in game two.
Auburn 11, Brown 2 (Mar 06, 2009 at Auburn, Ala.)
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Brown............... 000 002 000 - 2 5 1 (1-2)
Auburn.............. 701 003 00X - 11 11 4 (6-4)
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Win-Grant Dayton(1-1) Loss-Weidig, Will(0-2) T-2:26 A-2216
HR AU - Trent Mummey (5); Joseph Sanders (7); Brian Fletcher 2 (3); Casey McElroy (2).
