Feb. 25, 2012
TUCSON, Ariz. - The Auburn baseball team salvaged the final game of its three-game series at No. 8 Arizona, riding the strong pitching of freshman Daniel Koger to win, 8-3, in the second game of a Saturday doubleheader. The win evened Auburn's record at 4-4 while Arizona dropped to 5-2.
"They beat us pretty good in the first two games and after the first game today (a 15-4 Arizona win) we talked about we needed to come out and play with a little pride and a sense of urgency," Auburn Head Coach John Pawlowski said. "You can't say enough about the job Daniel Koger did today. That's a top-10 team, on the road in a tough environment to be in. He gave us six solid innings after we have played not great baseball for two consecutive games."
Koger (1-0), who threw five innings in a no decision last weekend in which he allowed an unearned run on five hits and three walks, was even better on Saturday, working six full innings and not allowing a run at all while scattering two hits and three walks, striking out three. The lefthander had a no-hit bid through 3 1/3 innings before allowing a single.
"I tried to work my fastball and work my change-up a little bit and let them put the ball in play," Koger said. "The big key was when they put the ball in play they were ground balls and our team made the plays for the most part."
Creede Simpson, Ryan Tella and Garrett Cooper each had two hits apiece in the two, three and four spots in the lineup while Dan Glevenyak (2-for-4, 2B, 3B), Zach Alvord (2-for-4) and Blake Austin (3-for-5, 3B) combined for seven of Auburn's 14 hits out of the seven, eight and nine holes, scoring four runs and driving in four.
"We felt like we needed to shake the dice up a little bit and see what happens," Pawlowski said of lineup changes. "Blake Austin did a really good job behind the plate and came up with three hits today."
Auburn jumped on Arizona starter James Farris (1-1) in the first, scoring a pair of runs on a balk and a Cooper RBI single. The team kept it up in the second as Glevenyak doubled and scored on an Austin single before Austin came home on a Tella single to take a 4-0 advantage.
A single run in the fourth on an Austin triple and a Simpson RBI groundout ended Farris' day after he allowed five runs on seven hits with two walks.
Auburn treated Stephen Manthei same way as it did Farris, scoring a pair of runs in the fifth to take a 7-0 lead as Glevenyak hit a sac fly and Austin drove in Cooper with his second single of the day.
A Glevenyak triple and an Alvord RBI single made it 8-0 in the eighth before Arizona got on the board with three in the bottom half of the inning off of Jay Wade. The big blow was a two-run triple by pinch hitter Bobby Brown, which prompted Auburn to call on Justin Bryant out of the pen. Bryant allowed Brown to score but nothing else, getting help by a pair of defensive gems, the first by Cooper at first in the eighth for the final out of the inning with men on the corners and the second by Cullen Wacker in left as he dove to snag a sinking liner with one out and a man on first in the ninth.
Auburn returns home for its next five games, beginning with a two-game series against Alabama State which starts on Tuesday at 5pm.
Auburn 8, Arizona 3 (Feb 25, 2012 at Tucson, AZ) (Game 2)
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Auburn.............. 220 120 100 - 8 14 5 (4-4)
Arizona............. 000 000 300 - 3 7 3 (5-2)
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Win-Daniel Koger(1-0) Loss-Farris, James(1-1) T-3:23 A-1362
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