AUBURN, Ala. – Samuel Dutton and Carson Myers combined to hold No. 13 Vanderbilt scoreless in eight of the nine innings, and No. 13 Auburn used a five-run third inning to secure a 6-2 win in the Southeastern Conference opener Friday night at Plainsman Park.
After the Commodores hit a two-run home run in the third inning and tallied four hits in their first three at-bats, Auburn’s pitching duo held the visitors scoreless and to just two hits the rest of the way.
“(Dutton) showed a ton of maturity,” head coach Butch Thompsons said. “He gave up the home run, but our offense was right there for him. They responded and had his back. He had all of his pitches working. I just saw maturity flow over, and he continued to do a nice job.
“Myers was unhittable in the eighth,” Thompson added. “He helped us get to the finish line and not have to bring in another piece to try to finish it. He just did an amazing job.”
Dutton (3-1) turned in a career-high 7.0 innings and retired 14 of the last 17 batters he faced from the end of the third inning through the rest of his outing. Myers then entered to start the eighth inning and struck out the side on 10 pitches before shutting the door in the ninth.
“The main thing was throwing strikes, competing and getting outs,” Dutton said. “It felt great. I went out there and just trusted what I had done in the fall and in the spring. Everything that I had prepared for, I just let it take control out there.”
Trailing 2-0, Auburn’s five-run third inning came on the strength of four two-strike hits to go along with a hit-by-pitch and a walk. Six of the team’s eight hits in the game came with two strikes, resulting in just three strikeouts for the contest.
“I did not know until I got the box score that we only struck out three times,” Thompson said. “We didn’t score every inning because that’s a really good ballclub that we’re facing, but to only strike out three times tells you the commitment to each at-bat, and the two-strike hitting was amazing in that five-run inning.”
Dutton worked two scoreless frames before Vanderbilt (14-4, 0-1 SEC) started the scoring with a single and two-run homer to start the third. After walking the next batter, the Auburn starter responded to induce a double play before striking out three-hole hitter Brodie Johnston looking to end the inning.
Auburn (15-3, 1-0 SEC) answered immediately as five of the first six batters reached and all came in to score in the bottom of the inning. Bub Terrell and Eric Guevara hit back-to-back singles and Bristol Cater was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Terrell scored the first run on a wild pitch, and Eric Snow drew a walk to reload the bases. Cooper McMurray tied the game with a sacrifice fly, and Deric Fabian gave the Tigers the lead with a two-RBI double down the right field line. Chase Fralick then battled with two strikes and two outs, sending a RBI single through the left side of a shifted infield to score Fabian and make it 5-2.
“We just got hits in big situations,” Terrell said. “As a team we just rely on each other and rack up good at-bats. We just trust one another.”
Dutton settled into the game nicely in the middle innings, holding the Commodores scoreless in the fourth through seventh innings while allowing just three baserunners on two singles and an error.
Leading by three, Auburn manufactured a run in the sixth inning off Vanderbilt reliever Alex Kranzler. Chris Rembert started the inning with a single, stole second, advanced to third on a ground ball to the right side by Terrell, and scored on a grounder to third by Guevara.
Dutton went back to work for his final inning in the seventh and set down the Commodores in order while still registering 94-mile-per-hour fastballs in the frame.
After throwing his near-immaculate inning in the eighth, Myers worked around a one-out walk in the ninth and struck out the last two batters to end the game.
Terrell led the way offensively with three hits in his first career conference game, and Fabian drove in multiple runs for the sixth time this season.
Game two in the series between the Tigers and Commodores has been moved up to Saturday at 11 a.m. CT.