ARLINGTON, Texas. – No. 25 Auburn turned in its second shutout in the last five games with a 13-0 run-rule win against Ohio State Friday afternoon at Globe Life Field.
The win marked Auburn’s third run-rule victory in the last five contests, and the Tigers have outscored opponents 59-13 during the span.
Samuel Dutton (2-1) turned in 6.0 scoreless innings with a career-high nine strikeouts while the offense scored its 13 runs on 13 hits, marking the fifth straight game with 13 or more hits.
“It was just a clean game,” head coach Butch Thompson said. “I’m not going to stop, and I don’t think the players are going to stop. Can we shove (the ball) in the zone, take the sting out of the swing and try to figure out different things? Samuel Dutton executed a masterful plan today. The offense, it just feels like they’re almost competing amongst themselves for who can have the most competitive at-bats.”
Making his third straight start to begin his Auburn career, Dutton struck out multiple batters in the first, third, fourth and fifth innings and retired the last 10 batters he faced.
“Getting this opportunity to play at Globe Life (Field), an MLB park, it doesn’t get much better than that,” Dutton said. “For us to play three games here and to experience something like this is huge.”
Offensively, Cooper McMurray collected multiple hits for the fifth straight game and drove in three or more runs for the third time this season. He was one of four players with multiple hits in the game.
The offense struck for eight runs on four hits and five walks to take command of the game in the second inning. Six of the eight runs were scored with two outs.
“It was a huge inning for us,” McMurray said of the team’s eight-run second. “Credit to my teammates for getting on base before me. I was just looking for a fastball. He threw one 0-0, and I was able to put a good swing on it.”
The Tigers (9-1) drew three straight walks to start the second inning and started the scoring on a RBI single to shallow center field from Chase Fralick, one of his game-high three hits in the game. With the bases still loaded and nobody out, Bristol Carter lifted one down the right field line, deep enough to score Bub Terrell from third. Ohio State starter Drew Erdmann nearly escaped the jam with minimal damage, but a bases-loaded walk to Ike Irish and three straight two-out extra base hits extended the lead to 8-0. McMurray cleared the bases with a double down the right field line before Deric Fabian doubled over the center fielder’s head and Terrell drove him in with a sharp single to left center.
Dutton struck out his third and fourth batters of the game in the third, and Auburn’s offense stayed at it with two more in the fourth. Irish drilled a ground ball back up the middle to score Belyeu after a leadoff double, and the junior backstop later scored on a double play ball to make it 10-0.
Fralick hit a leadoff double in the fifth and came around to score on an Ohio State (1-6) fielding error and wild pitch. The Tigers then capped off the scoring in the contest with two runs on back-to-back single from Chris Rembert and Fralick in the sixth.
Ryan Hetzler entered in relief of Dutton in the seventh and retired all three batters he faced, ending the game with a strikeout.
“We’re going to play another great team tomorrow, but that’s kind of the goal. That’s what the best do. They don’t just do it one time. They do it consistently,” Thompson said.
The Tigers will take on No. 8 Oregon State (5-2) in game two Saturday at 6 p.m. CT on FloCollege.