Feb. 24, 2012
TUCSON, Ariz. - The Auburn baseball team surrendered a five-run second inning to No. 8 Arizona and fell, 8-1, on Friday night at Hi Corbett Field at Tucson, Ariz. The loss evened Auburn's record at 3-3 while Arizona improved to 4-1. The two teams will close out the series with a Saturday doubleheader beginning at 3pm CT.
"It was one of those games where we had some early momentum, we were up, 1-0, and then they had a big inning," Auburn Head Coach John Pawlowski said. "They put some big swings on it. They had a great inning, scored five runs and never really looked back after that."
Derek Varnadore took the loss to fall to 1-1, allowing seven runs on 11 hits and a walk in six innings, striking out three.
Kurt Heyer (2-0) got the win for Arizona, allowing just an unearned run in seven innings, scattering six hits and a walk while striking out four.
Auburn's undoing came in the second as Arizona loaded the bases on three straight singles to start the inning. After a Varnadore strike out, Bobby Brown delivered a two-run double to right-center to give Arizona a 2-1 lead. A sac fly from Joey Rickard made it 3-1 before Alex Mejia hit a two-run home run to left to extend the lead to 5-1.
Auburn's lone run came in the top of the second as Creede Simpson singled and scored from second on a throwing error by Arizona third baseman Seth Mejias-Brean on a Dan Glevenyak sacrifice bunt attempt. The leadoff single for Simpson extended his hitting streak to 10 games dating to last season.
Jay Gonzalez finished the night 2-for-5, extending his hitting streak to six games with a fifth-inning single.
Mejia finished the game 3-for-5 with four RBIs and was one of three Arizona hitters to collect three hits on the night, joining Mejias-Brown and Brandon Dixon, who were both 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles each.
Auburn will start RHP Slade Smith (0-1, 9.64 ERA) and LHP Daniel Koger (0-0, 0.00) to the mound in that order in Saturday's twin bill. Arizona will counter with RHP Konner Wade (0-0, 2.45) and RHP James Farris (1-0, 0.00) in that order.
Arizona 8, Auburn 1 (Feb 24, 2012 at Tucson, AZ)
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Auburn.............. 010 000 000 - 1 10 0 (3-3)
Arizona............. 051 001 01X - 8 14 2 (4-1)
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Win-Heyer, Kurt(2-0) Loss-Derek Varnadore(1-1) T-2:36 A-2470
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