AUBURN, Ala. – Samuel Dutton turned in his second straight scoreless start to lead No. 9 Auburn to an 8-4 win over No. 3 LSU in front of another record crowd Friday night at Plainsman Park.
The win marked Auburn’s 10th ranked win of the season, including its fourth against a top-10 team, and the Tigers improved to 8-1 in series openers.
"I thought (Chase) Fralick’s hit was huge, and Ike’s (Irish) big swing was gigantic in this ballgame,” head coach Butch Thompson said. “Sam (Dutton) did a nice job. Everybody was flying around. Our freshmen went 7-for-11 in this ballgame. They just continue to play. It’s a great team win. You get a guy that you believe like Dutton getting to his stuff, and you can pull it off.”
Friday’s crowd of 6,756 surpassed last week’s total in the series opener against Alabama for the largest crowd in program history. It was the third time this season that record has been broken.
“I’m for it,” Thompson added of continuing to set attendance records. “The rain tried to dampen the crowd there for a little bit. I know it was close to last Friday night, but we snuck in a few extra people. It’s just awesome. Just amazing.”
Pitching against his former team, Dutton (5-2) turned in his second straight scoreless start and fourth quality start of the season. The Southside, Alabama, native held the LSU offense that entered the weekend ranked sixth in the country in batting average scoreless for 6.0 innings. The senior allowed just three hits with two walks and seven strikeouts.
“It felt awesome. It was a great experience,” Dutton said of his outing. “I tried to keep the main thing the main thing, execute the plan and just really attack the hitters. It was just business as usual.”
Eight of Auburn’s nine hitters recorded a hit in the game, highlighted by freshmen Chris Rembert, Bub Terrell and Chase Fralick going a combined 7-for-11 with three doubles and three RBI.
“It feels great to get the first one,” Fralick said of the win. “We’re that much closer to a series win, but we have to come out tomorrow and keep the foot on the gas.”
Auburn (24-10, 7-6 SEC) struck first two a two-out, two-run double from Fralick in the bottom of the second. Terrell and Eric Guevara put runners on the corners with one-out singles, and Fralick went the other way with a two-strike pitch, splitting the gap in left center to score both.
Dutton ended the top of the fifth inning with his second clean frame of the game, registering a strikeout to end the inning, and the Tigers offense went to work in the home half. LSU starter Kade Anderson’s last pitch was a bases-clearing triple from Ike Irish to extend the lead to five runs. A pair of single from Deric Fabian and Rembert and an LSU error loaded to bases before Irish hit a full-count pitch over the head of center fielder Chris Stanfield to score all three. Cooper McMurray then drove in Irish with a single through the left side to extend the lead to 6-0.
Facing the most traffic on the bases in his outing, Dutton navigated a roller coaster sixth inning and struck out five-hole hitter Ethen Frey looking to keep the visiting Tigers scoreless.
After Auburn added a run on a single from Rembert in the bottom of the sixth, LSU (31-4, 10-3 SEC) cut its deficit to four with three runs in the seventh. The first run scored on a groundout to first, and Jared Jones came through with a two-out, two-run double to make it 7-3.
Auburn answered with a run on a Terrell’s second double of the game and Guevara’s RBI single back up the middle to extend the lead to five.
Carson Myers retired the Tigers in order in the eighth thanks to a pair of nice catches in foul territory by Terrell, ending the inning with a sliding catch close to the brick wall down the left field line.
LSU added a run on back-to-back, two-out doubles, but Myers struck out Jones to end the game. The strikeout of Jones was the team’s 12th of the game.
Game two between Auburn and LSU is scheduled for Saturday at 6 p.m. CT.