April 14, 2010
AUBURN, Ala. - Auburn used six different pitchers, none of which threw more than two full innings, to limit New Orleans to just three hits and two walks as Auburn cruised to a 13-1 victory on Wednesday night at Plainsman Park.
Designated starter Cory Luckie threw two perfect innings, striking out one, to pick up his second consecutive midweek victory for Auburn, moving to 3-2 on the season.
Hunter Morris led the offense with three hits, driving in two, as Auburn improved to 23-11 on the season and 17-5 at home Morris, who entered the game tied with Brian Fletcher for the team lead in RBI with 39 and one behind him in home runs, drove in Auburn's first run in the first with a RBI single to right. He then hit his 10th home run of the season with one out in the third, giving him 33 for his career, tying him with Casey Dunn for ninth on Auburn's all-time home run list.
"It was important for us, coming off of a big series win against LSU, to come out here and take care of business," Morris said. "It was another day at the ball park, which is another day to get better. You can't take games for granted. You have to put in the same work and the same effort that you do on weekends in SEC play."
SEC Player of the Week Justin Fradejas extended his hitting streak to 15 games with a second-inning single to center that drove in two and then added another single in Auburn's five-run eighth to give him his fifth multi-hit game in the last six games and also eight RBI in the last six contests.
Joining Luckie in throwing perfect innings for Auburn was Bradley Hendrix, who struck out the side in his inning of work, the eighth, and Garrett Bush, who fanned two of the three hitters he faced in the ninth.
Slade Smith surrendered the only run to New Orleans (10-22) when it scored on a two-out single in the third, while Sean Ray walked one and struck out two in two innings and Stephen Kohlscheen allowed a two-out single in the seventh.
Dan Gamache (1-for-2, BB) and Justin Hargett (2-for-4, 2B, BB) scored six of Auburn's 13 runs from the eight and nine holes in the lineup.
Casey McElroy added a two-run home run in the eighth, his third of the season.
New Orleans starter Joe Zimmermann (0-5) took the loss, allowing five runs on nine hits in five innings.
Auburn hits the road for a weekend series at No. 18 Vanderbilt this weekend in Nashville. Game times for the series are 6pm CT on Friday, 2pm on Sunday and 1pm on Sunday, with Sunday's game airing live on ESPNU.
Auburn 13, New Orleans 1 (Apr 14, 2010 at Auburn, AL)
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New Orleans......... 001 000 000 - 1 3 3 (10-22)
Auburn.............. 121 102 06X - 13 17 2 (23-11)
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Win-Cory Luckie(3-2) Loss-Zimmermann, Joe(0-5) T-2:13 A-2093
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