April 2, 2010
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - No. 23 Alabama busted out for five runs on six singles and a pair of Auburn errors in the third inning and carried that momentum throughout the rest of the game as Auburn fell, 10-5, on Friday night at Sewell-Thomas Stadium. Cory Luckie lasted just 2 1/3 innings in the start for Auburn, allowing all five runs in the decisive third to fall to 1-2 on the season.
"We didn't play well in a lot of different phases tonight," Auburn Head Coach John Pawlowski said. "The biggest thing that we didn't do well tonight was we didn't defend. It was a tough all-around night for us."
Auburn (17-9, 4-3 SEC) used three extra-base hits to score its first three runs of the game as Brian Flethcer (2-for-4) tripled and scored in the second and Tony Caldwell (2-for-3, 2 R) and Justin Bryant (2-for-2) each hit solo home runs in the sixth and seventh innings, respectively, while the exact opposite was true for Alabama (18-7, 3-4 SEC), which had just two of its 15 hits go for extra-bases, instead using consecutive singles to knock in eight of its 10 runs.
Alabama starter Adam Morgan (4-0) held Auburn to just three runs on six hits, striking out eight, and only allowed multiple Auburn base runners on at the same time once in his seven full innings of work to remain perfect on the season.
"(Morgan) did a good job. He threw his breaking ball when he needed to and showed enough fastballs. I thought his breaking ball was an effective pitch for him and he made some big pitches and we couldn't come up with a big inning," Pawlowski said.
Taylor Dugas, Josh Rutledge and Jake Smith all went 3-for-5 with two runs scored for Alabama while Caldwell, Hunter Morris (2-for-3), Fletcher and Bryant all had two hits for Auburn.
With Auburn ahead 1-0 after Casey McElroy's sac fly scored Fletcher following his triple, Alabama used six singles and two errors on the same play to take a 4-1 lead and knock Luckie out of the game. Jon Luke Jacobs followed and allowed a run before settling in for the next 4 2/3 innings, with Alabama scoring single runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings off of Jacobs to go up 8-2 after six.
Stephen Kohlscheen came in for Jacobs with two on and two out in the seventh and got a pop-up on the first pitch he threw to Jake Smith but a miscue by McElroy on the high pop-up in shallow left-center eluded McElroy and the two incoming outfielders, allowing two more runs to score.
Auburn was able to load the bases in the eighth off of Brett Whitaker with one out and scored on a wild pitch and a McElroy RBI groundout for the final tally.
Auburn will try and even the series at a game apiece at 4pm CT on Saturday when it sends Jr. LHP Cole Nelson (4-1, 3.12) to the mound opposite Alabama Jr. RHP Jimmy Nelson (4-0, 1.78).
Alabama 10, Auburn 5 (Apr 02, 2010 at Tuscaloosa, AL)
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Auburn.............. 010 001 120 - 5 10 3 (17-9, 4-3 SEC)
Alabama............. 005 111 20X - 10 15 0 (18-7, 3-4 SEC)
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Win-Adam Morgan(4-0) Loss-Cory Luckie(1-2) T-2:51 A-5112
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