Feb. 26, 2010
AUBURN, Ala. - Brian Fletcher belted a 2-2 pitch off of Boston College reliever Chris Kowalski over the wall in right-center for his second home run of the game to send Auburn to a 6-5 walk-off win over Boston College on Friday night. The home run gave Auburn its' second walk-off win of the season as it improved to 3-1 on the year.
"I struggled early in the count, going two-two, and thankfully he left me a change-up up that I could handle and I drove the ball out," Fletcher said of his 10th-inning at-bat. "A win like this gives us momentum into the rest of the weekend. The pitchers battled, everyone on offense was trying to do their best and trying to get us a W."
Fletcher, who finished the game 3-for-5 with three RBI, stroked a two-run home run over the wall in left in the third that had put Auburn up 3-2 after four. With his two home runs, he moved into ninth on the Auburn career home runs list with 30, tying Jamie Kersh (1996-99). He also extended his hitting streak to nine games, dating back to last season.
"We did some good things offensively. We bunted well, we moved some runners over," Auburn Head Coach John Pawlowski said. "Then you look at our pitching. I was pleased with the guys we brought in. Our relievers came in and they all seemed to come into a sticky situation but they did a good job of pitching out of trouble and giving us a chance to win."
Auburn finished the night with four sacrifice bunts, two by Creede Simpson, and a sac fly and did not commit an error defensively.
Auburn fell behind 2-0 in the top of the first as Boston College strung together three straight hits off of Auburn starter Jon Luke Jacobs. The sophomore settled in from there, allowing just three more hits before leaving with two on and one out and Auburn ahead 5-2 in the top of the fifth. Sean Ray came in to clean up the mess, entering with two runners in scoring position but striking out the first two hitters he faced to end the Boston College scoring threat.
Hunter Morris' (1-for-5) first-inning triple got Auburn to within 2-1 before Fletcher's two-run blast put Auburn ahead. A Wes Gilmer (0-for-3) sac fly and a Justin Hargett (3-for-5, 2 2B) single upped the lead to 5-2 before Boston College rallied with two in the sixth off of Ray and one in the seventh off of Bradley Hendrix.
Mickey Wiswall paced the Boston College attack, finishing the night 2-for-3 with two doubles, two walks and four RBI.
Fletcher's blast made a winner out of Austin Hubbard (1-0), who threw a scoreless top of the 10th.
Kowalski dropped to 0-1 in what was his third appearance of the season for Boston College (2-2)
Auburn returns to the field at 3pm on Saturday when it faces Missouri (3-1), a 4-2 winner over Florida Atlantic (2-2) in the Auburn Classic opener earlier on Friday. Prior to the first pitch, Auburn will honor Tim Hudson, Bo Jackson, Gregg Olson and Frank Thomas with an on-field ceremony as it inducts the four into its Wall of Fame. The ceremony will not begin before 2:20pm but is dependent upon the completion time of the Florida Atlantic-Boston College game, which starts at 11am.
Auburn 6, Boston College 5 (Feb 26, 2010 at Auburn, AL)
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Boston College...... 200 002 100 0 - 5 11 0 (2-2)
Auburn.............. 102 200 000 1 - 6 13 0 (3-1)
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Win-Austin Hubbard(1-0) Loss-Chris Kowalski(0-1) T-3:28 A-2117
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Auburn-Boston College Box Score in PDF Format
Missouri-Florida Atlantic Box Score in PDF Format