June 2, 2018
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RALEIGH, N.C. -- No. 19 Auburn used a complete effort in all phases of the game to reserve its spot in the Raleigh Regional final with a 12-1 win against Army Saturday night at Doak Field at Dail Park.
Offensively, Auburn (41-21) turned in eight extra-base hits with four doubles, one triple and three home runs, marking the team's eighth game with three or more home runs. The Tigers had just seven such games combined in the previous seven seasons. All nine of Auburn's starters recorded a hit in the game and six Tigers had two or more hits.
All-American Casey Mize (10-5, 2.95) pitched 7.0 innings and allowed just one run on four hits with two walks and 11 strikeouts. The Springville, Ala., native recorded his sixth outing with 10 or more strikeouts on the season and moved past Ryan Halla and into a tie with Brent Schoening for third in single-season history with 151 strikeouts on the year.
"It was a good win for our program -- well-pitched and well-defended," head coach Butch Thompson said. "Army presents so many challenges with the short game and their ability to run, and Casey really impressed me this outing with his ability to field his position. I was starting to wonder if we were going to put something together because they had done such a good job on the mound to that point, and we hung in there and had the big inning, which was huge for us. The guys were resilient and hit some balls hard. We finished the game very well."
In what was a pitcher's duel through the early innings, Auburn broke through in the fourth before blowing the game open in the top of the fifth. Brett Wright deposited a full-count pitch over the wall in left field to spark the offense with his 11th home run of the season.
Josh Anthony came right back and led off the top of the fifth with a solo home run of his own to increase the lead to 2-0. Will Holland followed five pitches later with his 12th long ball of the season. The back-to-back homers were the Tigers first since Steven Williams and Wright did so earlier this year against Arkansas.
Edouard Julien kept the offense rolling after Williams reached on a catcher's interference call and advanced to second on a Brendan Venter single to left field. Julien singled to right to drive in his 66th RBI of the season and is now just two behind Frank Thomas for the most in program history by a freshman.
Army went to right-hander Jacob Carte out of the bullpen with runners on first and second and one away in the inning. Jay Estes smoked the first pitch from Carte into left center to score Venter. Luke Jarvis continued the big inning for Auburn with a double of his own that drove in two more runs. Anthony, who had already homered in the inning, collected the Tiger's fifth extra base hit of the frame as he doubled to left center to score Jarvis. Auburn brought two more runs in on a throwing error to conclude the nine-run frame.
In the seventh, Holland singled with two down to drive in his second run of the game and 50th of the season. He later came home on a triple by Williams to center field. Williams triple was the first of his career and the Tigers fourth on the season.
Elliott Anderson and Corey Herndon combined to close out the final 2.0 innings and allowed just two hits while striking out three.
The Auburn offense collected seventeen hits for the second consecutive day. The eleven-run margin of victory is tied for the team's third largest in NCAA postseason play. Over the course of two days the Tiger have scored 25 runs on 33 hits with 12 coming going extra bases.
The second-seeded Tigers will await the winner of tomorrow's elimination game between No. 1 seed N.C. State and No. 4 seed Army, which is scheduled for Sunday at 1 p.m. CT.