April 15, 2009
AUBURN, Ala. - Brian Fletcher tied a school record by hitting home runs in each of his first three trips to the plate and Paul Burnside earned his first win in almost two years as Auburn bounced back from Tuesday's 5-2 defeat with a 12-7 win over South Alabama at Plainsman Park on Wednesday night. Fletcher finished the night a perfect 4-for-4 at the plate, drove in a career-high six runs, stole home and became the first Auburn player since Josh Etheredge in 1996 to hit three homers in a single game.
"It was one of those games for me," Fletcher said. "I was seeing the ball really well and hitting it really well, and that's just a good feeling. It's real important to get off to a good start like we did tonight. Going into this weekend with South Carolina, we need all the momentum we can get."
Auburn staked Burnside to a 9-1 lead after two innings, scoring six times off of a combined three South Alabama pitchers in the first inning, sending eight men to the plate before an out was recorded, and then added three more in the second to give Burnside all he needed to pick up his first win since April 20, 2007 over Alabama.
"When you score six runs in the first inning and three in the second, you gain a lot of confidence," Auburn Head Coach John Pawlowski said. "You like to see kids that work really hard do things like that. (Fletcher) has been spending a lot of time in the cages and been doing a lot of extra work. We are going to need that confidence going into this weekend at South Carolina."
Trent Mummey and Joseph Sanders' back-to-back home runs preceded Fletcher's first-inning homer, giving Auburn five in the game and upping the season total to 79 on the season. Combined with Fletcher's first-inning three-run shot, Auburn has now had five five-homer games and a pair of three-homer innings this season.
The middle three in Auburn's batting order (Sanders, Ben Jones and Hunter Morris) finished the game with six of Auburn's 13 hits with each collecting two hits and scoring two runs.
Down 1-0 after South Alabama scored on a Adam Heisler RBI fielder's choice in the top of the first, Auburn battered South Alabama starter Brandon Brown (1-3) for four runs on two hits and two walks, knocking him from the game in the midst of Ben Jones' at bat following three straight balls.
Justin Hargett, who finished the night without a hit to snap his 10-game hitting streak, drew a leadoff walk, setting the stage for Mummey's 13th home run of the season. Sanders followed with his 17th home run of the season, the fourth time Auburn has hit back-to-back first-inning homers this season.
Sanders' 17th home run placed him into Auburn's single-season top 10, tying him with Doug Gilcrease (1982) and Bo Jackson (1985) for ninth on the list, five behind school record holder Todd Faulkner's 22 from 2000.
Things didn't get for South Alabama when Michael Raia relieved Brown as he finished off a walk to Jones after entering with a 3-0 count on the cleanup hitter, allowed a single to Morris and the first of Fletcher's three run home runs to make it 6-1 Auburn.
After Burnside worked around a leadoff double in the second, the Auburn hitters went back to work in the bottom half of the inning as Sanders hit a one-out double, went to third on a Jones groundout and scored on a wild pitch. A walk to Morris preceded Fletcher's second blast, putting Auburn up 9-1.
Burnside (1-2) worked into the sixth inning for just the second time this season and left having allowed five runs on eight hits and two walks, striking out four as South Alabama scored two times in the third and once in the fourth to narrow the margin to 9-4.
"It's been a while since I have been able to go this deep into a game but it's a little easier when your hitters put up nine runs in the first two innings. It's just your job to throw strikes and prevent big innings after that," Burnside said. "Hopefully we can carry this win into this weekend and a tough road series."
Fletcher's leadoff home run in the fifth upped the lead to 10-4 but South Alabama refused to go down easy, scoring a run in the sixth on a Derek O'Reilly RBI single after Burnside turned things over to Chris O'Neil with two men on and one out in the sixth to cut the lead to 10-5.
South Alabama scored twice more off of O'Neil in the seventh as Heisler doubled and scored on a Ryan Bohanon double and David Doss reached on an error and scored on a Jake Overstreet bases-loaded walk.
Zach Blatt and Austin Hubbard combined to throw the final 2 2/3 innings for Auburn with Blatt entering with the bases loaded and one out in the seventh, recording a strikeout and a groundout to thwart the South Alabama rally.
Hubbard picked up his eighth save by relieving Blatt in the eighth with men on first and third following a walk and an error and Auburn leading 11-7, retiring six of the eight men he faced, including the first four by strikeout, to move into Auburn's single-season and career top 10 for saves with eight.
Fletcher's seventh-inning steal of home that made it 11-7 was Auburn's first successful steal of home since Clete Thomas did it against UAB on April 6, 2004.
Morris' RBI two-out double in the bottom of the eighth that scored Jones from first put the night's final run on the board.
Auburn returns to Southeastern Conference action this weekend at South Carolina. Game times are 6pm CT on Friday, 3pm on Saturday and 12:30 pm on Sunday. Saturday's game will be televised live on SportsSouth.
Auburn 12, South Alabama 7 (Apr 15, 2009 at Auburn, AL)
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South Alabama....... 102 101 200 - 7 12 3 (15-20)
Auburn.............. 630 010 11X - 12 13 3 (24-13)
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Win-Paul Burnside(1-2) Save-Austin Hubbard(8) Loss-Brown, Brandon(1-3) T-2:58 A-2287
HR USA - Laird, Sean (7).
HR AU - Trent Mummey (13); Joseph Sanders (17); Brian Fletcher 3 (12).
Weather: 65 degrees; Sunny
