March 12, 2011
AUBURN, Ala. - For the second straight game the No. 23 Auburn baseball team jumped out to an early lead and for the second straight day it could not hold it, falling to No. 7 Arizona State, 9-5, on Saturday afternoon at Plainsman Park. The loss dropped Auburn's record to 10-5 while Arizona State is now 11-2.
"We made some mistakes and you can't get away with a lot of mistakes, whether it was base running mistakes or just handling the baseball," Auburn Head Coach John Pawlowski said. "I think the big thing, too, was in seven out of nine innings they (Arizona State) had the leadoff guy on base. It always seemed like we were pitching with men on base and that puts a lot of pressure on your team and on the defense. They are a quality team and they are going to find ways to score runs and they did today."
Arizona State finished the game with 17 hits, drew four walks and also had a hit batter while Auburn had 10 hits and six walks.
Auburn lead by two after two as Wes Gilmer (2-for-4, BB, RBI) walked and scored on a fielder's choice by Brooks Beisner (0-for-1, RBI) and then an error allowed Beisner to score on Zach Alvord's single back up the middle.
After a Xorge Carrillo (3-for-5, 2 2B, 3 RBI) RBI double cut the lead to one, 2-1, in the top of the third, Auburn answered with two more in the bottom half as Gilmer singled home Justin Hargett (2-for-4, RBI) and Creede Simpson (0-for-4, BB) scored after a throwing error allowed Dan Gamache (1-for-5, RBI) to get to first safely.
The four runs bounced Arizona State starter Kyle Ottoson from the game as he was charged for four runs (three earned) on five hits and two walks in 2 1/3 innings.
Holding the three-run lead heading into the fourth, Auburn once again ran into trouble in the middle innings as Arizona State scored three times in the inning. Matt Newman (3-for-5, 2B, 2 HR, 4 RBI), who hadn't homered coming into the game, sent a two-run shot over the wall in right, knocking out Auburn starter Slade Smith after 3 1/3 innings of three-run baseball in which he surrendered seven hits and a walk.
Andrew Morris (1-1) came in for Smith and allowed a single to Joey DeMichele (5-for-5, 3 2B, 4 R) and a RBI double to Carrillo before getting out of the inning with the game tied at 4-4.
Tied at 5-5 after six, Arizona State scored twice in the seventh, scoring on a Deven Marrero (0-for-3, BB, RBI) sacrifice fly and a Newman double to go up 7-5. The two runs came off of Morris, who would leave in the seventh after giving up four runs on six hits and two walks in three innings of work.
Arizona State tacked on two insurance runs in the ninth on Newman's second home run of the game and a Carrillo RBI single.
Mark Lambson (1-0) picked up the win in relief for Arizona State, tossing one shutout inning.
Trevor Williams picked up his first save of the season by holding Auburn to just one walk over the final 2 2/3 innings.
Casey McElroy finished the game 1-for-4 for Auburn, extending his hitting streak to 10 games, which matches his career-best, and also reaching base for the 15th straight game this season.
Auburn will try to salvage the final game of the series at 1pm on Sunday when it sends RHP Derek Varnadore (3-0, 1.17 ERA) to the mound against Arizona State's RHP Kramer Champlin (2-0, 2.50).
Arizona State 9, Auburn 5 (Mar 12, 2011 at Auburn, AL)
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Arizona State....... 001 301 202 - 9 17 3 (11-2)
Auburn.............. 022 001 000 - 5 10 1 (10-5)
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Win-Lambson, Mark(1-0) Save-Williams, Trevor(1) Loss-Andrew Morris(1-1) T-3:04 A-3272
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