AUBURN, Ala. – Behind six near-perfect innings from freshman Christian Chatteron, No. 5 Auburn turned in its fourth shutout of the season, defeating Samford 3-0 Tuesday night at the Hoover Met.
The win marked Auburn’s second straight two-hit shutout in the midweek, marking the sixth time this season the Tigers have held the opponent to two hits.
“That’s what we were talking about in the pregame, how important every one of these baseball games are down the stretch,” head coach Butch Thompson said. “It was a good start to the beginning of these last three weeks.”
Chatterton and fellow freshman Andreas Alvarez combined to pitch eight of the nine innings and racked up 13 strikeouts compared to just one walk, while Ryan Hetzler earned his team-best sixth save of the season.
“He just picked up where he left off a week later,” Thompson added of Chatterton. “He’s done that three or four times in a row now. The changeup, the conviction with everything. When he needed a pitch, he could get that changeup over every time. It’s just not recognizable right now. That pitch is set as good as any pitch for any pitcher on our pitching staff.”
Chatterton’s 10 strikeouts were a career high and matched Carson Myers for the most by an Auburn pitcher this season. He retired the first 12 batters he faced and ultimately sat down 18 of the 19 he faced in the game.
“I have to give some credit to Chase Fralick behind the plate. He is part of the reason why I have been pitching so well,” Chatterton said. “He’s helped me with major confidence in the (changeup) as well.
“I think I forgot that my stuff plays in the zone,” Chatterton added. “Once I got back to just pounding the zone with all four pitches I kind of got my confidence back, and it’s been good recently."
In his last four midweek starts, Chatterton has allowed one earned run in 19.0 innings, good for a 0.47 ERA. He has 26 strikeouts and four walks and has held opponents to four hits, good for a .066 average against in the span.
The freshman got instant run support Tuesday night as Auburn (31-14) wasted no time getting on the scoreboard in the top of the first. Chris Rembert started the game with a single and Cade Belyeu followed two pitches later with a two-run homer to straightaway center field. The long ball was Belyeu’s fifth of the season, including his first since Mar. 25.
“I was just trying to loosen up and put a good swing on the ball,” Belyeu said. “In batting practice, Gabe (Gross) and Karl (Nonemaker) have been helping me a lot. It showed up in the game. At least I got that one in the first to help us win, and huge props to our pitching for that win.”
Pitching with an early lead, Chatterton retired the first six batters he faced, including five straight strikeouts, in the first two innings. He struck out his sixth batter of the game in the third and needed just six pitches in the fourth to retire the side. It marked his second start this season in which he has retired 12 or more batters to start a game.
Samford (23-21) started the fifth inning with a double to break up the perfect game. The Bulldogs moved the runner to third on a failed pickoff attempt with one out, but Chatterton recorded his ninth strikeout of the game, matching a season high, and got a groundout to short to get out of the inning unscathed.
Chatterton struck out his career-high 10th batter of the game to start the sixth inning and retired the Bulldogs in order for the fifth time. The freshman hasn’t allowed an earned run in a span of 17.1 innings dating back to his first midweek start at Georgia Tech on Apr. 8.
The Tigers got back-to-back hit batters to start the seventh and extended their lead to 3-0 on an errant throw on a potential double play ball. Rembert scored from second after reaching for the second time in the game to start the inning.
Chatterton’s day was done after the sixth, and he handed it over to Alvarez in the seventh. The fellow freshman retired six of the eight batters he faced in a pair of scoreless innings before turning it over to Hetzler in the ninth. The sophomore recorded three outs in eight pitches to end the game.
Offensively, Rembert, Cooper McMurray and Bub Terrell each collected multiple hits to account for six of the team’s eight in the game.
The Tigers hit the road for a top-10 showdown at No. 7 Tennessee (36-9, 13-8 SEC) Friday through Sunday at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.