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AUBURN, Ala. - Cole Lipscomb pitched six innings and Cody Nulph had three hits and two RBI as Auburn baseball defeated Xavier 7-2 on Friday at Plainsman Park.
Lipscomb improved to 3-0 on the season with six strong innings. The sophomore struck out five with no walks and allowed only one run on four hits.
Auburn (11-3), winner of nine of its last 10 games, scored a pair of runs in the first inning on an RBI single by Nulph. The Tigers added another run on a sacrifice fly by Damon Haecker in the second to take a 3-1 lead.
With the bases loaded in the fifth inning, Blake Logan's first career triple cleared the bases as Auburn widened its lead to 6-1. JJ Shaffer singled in a run in the seventh for Auburn's seventh run.
Xavier (4-7) scored its opening run in the second inning on an RBI single by Brian Bruening. The Musketeers made it 7-2 with a RBI infield single by Daniel Rizzie in the eighth.
Anfernee Grier singled in the first and seventh innings and finished 2-for-2 to extend his hitting streak to a career-best 16 games. He also walked and was hit by a pitch twice.
Grier's streak is the longest for an Auburn player since Casey McElroy hit in 18-straight from Feb. 26-March 26, 2011.
Auburn totaled 11 hits to give it 10 or more for the sixth-straight game for the first time since hitting double digits in seven consecutive games from May 5-12, 2013.
Brad Kirschner was charged with the loss for Xavier after allowing six earned in 4.1 innings. The left-hander had allowed only one earned run in his previous three starts.
Auburn and Xavier are back at it again on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Plainsman Park.