AUBURN, Ala. – No. 20 Auburn completed its second weekend sweep of the season with a 6-0 shutout against Wright State Sunday at Plainsman Park.
The shutout was Auburn's third of the season and second of the week as the Tigers bounced back to win all five games in a span of six days.
"We talked about one goal," head coach Butch Thompson said. "There's one goal to our season, and that's winning today. There's all these different rankings. You have lofty goals. You have concrete goals. You have controllable goals. Today was just about a singular goal of trying to finish off a really good weekend and a great answer from last weekend."
Matt Scheffler not only caught all nine innings of the shutout, but also drove in a career-high four runs in the finale. He went 2-for-2 from the plate with two walks and two runs scored.
The Tigers (10-3) scored four runs in the first inning and never looked back. Three straight walks started the game, and Scheffler drove in all three on a double down the left field line. Rankin Woley then drove in the Auburn backstop on a single down the right field line.
"He had those first three walks with some close pitches that were eventually called balls and loaded the bases up," Scheffler said of the Wright State starter. "I could tell he was a little frustrated, so I knew he was going to try and fill up the zone. He threw me off a little bit with the slider, but I stayed back and got enough barrel on it to get it over the third baseman's head."
Auburn extended the advantage to 5-0 when Kason Howell doubled off the left field wall and Scheffler scored from first as the ball was mishandled in left in the bottom of the third.
The team capped off the scoring in the contest when Scheffler drove in his fourth run on a two-out single through the left side.
Bailey Horn (2-1, 3.18) earned the win, pitching 5.0 scoreless innings and matching a season high with seven strikeouts.
"I felt good," Horn said. "I settled down after the first. I worked on some of the secondary things this week. I feel like I had a better feel for some of that stuff and it helped today."
Horn struck out the side after Wright State threatened with its first two batters reaching in the top of the second and retired seven straight from that point until the fourth.
Richard Fitts retired all seven batters he faced in relief and struck out three. Hayden Mullins relieved Fitts in the eighth and worked around a pair of walks to hold the Raiders in check before Mason Barnett shut the door with a pair of strikeouts in the ninth.
The trio of Auburn relievers didn't allow a hit in 4.0 combined innings. The pitching staff struck out 13 batters in the contest, marking Auburn's 13th straight with 10 or more strikeouts to start the season.
Woley matched Scheffler with a pair of hits in the game and collected two hits in all three contests against the Raiders.
Auburn continues its 23-game homestand with a midweek matchup against in-state foe Samford Tuesday at 6 p.m. CT.