March 2, 2011
AUBURN, Ala. - Auburn's offense could only muster two runs on nine hits while Bethune-Cookman capitalized on its 11 hits for five runs as the No. 25 Auburn baseball team fell, 5-2, on Wednesday afternoon at Plainsman Park.
"Against good teams you have to be able to capitalize on your opportunities and we certainly didn't do that," Auburn Head Coach John Pawlowski said. "They pitched well and we made some mistakes pitching-wise and gave away some at bats."
Bethune-Cookman (5-5) jumped on Auburn starter Jon Luke Jacobs (1-1) for two runs in the first and tagged the junior right-hander for three runs (two earned) on seven hits in 4 2/3 innings, negating his seven strike out performance.
"John Luke battled. Right from the first inning he knew he made a couple of mistakes but when you look up at the end of the day he only gave up two earned runs in almost five innings. You give up three runs and you still have a chance to win a ballgame. I thought even going into the ninth inning, having given up five runs, we still had a chance, it just wasn't meant to be," Pawlowski said.
Bryan Rivera (1-0) picked up the win for Bethune-Cookman as he allowed two runs on four hits and four walks in 5 1/3 innings, striking out five, before turning it over to the bullpen, which threw 3 2/3 innings of scoreless baseball.
Roman Lancara picked up his first save of the season by throwing the final three innings, allowing no runs on three hits with three strike outs.
Down 3-1 in the bottom of the third, Auburn loaded the bases with one out on a Casey McElroy (1-for-5) single and back-to-back walks to Tony Caldwell (0-for-3, BB) and Dan Gamache (1-for-2, RBI, 2 R). Auburn (6-3) was unable to capitalize on the chance, however, as Rivera struck out Kevin Patterson (0-for-3) and induced a lineout off the bat of Wes Gilmer (1-for-3, BB) to end the inning.
Bethune-Cookman scored twice more in the top of the sixth off of Zach Blatt, taking advantage of a leadoff walk and a one-out single, to go up 5-1 before Auburn answered with a run in the bottom half of the inning on a Cullen Wacker (1-for-2, RBI) RBI groundout.
Auburn brought the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the ninth as it had two on and one out but a fielder's choice and a strike out ended the threat.
Andrew Morris threw three innings of one-hit baseball out of the pen for Auburn, striking out four.
Gamache homered to lead off the bottom of the second, lining a ball into the K Korner in right for his first home run of the season and the team's third.
Auburn hits the road for the first time this season over the weekend, traveling to Charleston, S.C., for the CofC Classic hosted by the College of Charleston. Auburn will face New York Tech at 1pm ET on Friday, the host College of Charleston at 1pm on Saturday and Western Kentucky at 11am on Sunday.
Bethune-Cookman 5, Auburn 2 (Mar 02, 2011 at Auburn, AL)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bethune-Cookman..... 201 002 000 - 5 11 1 (5-5)
Auburn.............. 010 001 000 - 2 9 2 (6-3)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Win-RIVERA, Bryan(1-0) Save-LANCARA, Roman(1) Loss-Jon Luke Jacobs(1-1) T-2:49 A-2319
Follow Auburn baseball on twitter at twitter.com/AUTigerBaseball.