AUBURN, Ala. – No. 5 Auburn extended its winning streak to seven games with a 17-2 run-rule victory against UAB Tuesday evening at Plainsman Park.
The Tigers scored in each of the first five innings, including four or more runs on three occasions. The team collected 17 hits in the contest, good for the second most this season, including a season high four doubles and four home runs.
“I thought we were invested in almost every sequence,” head coach Butch Thompson said. “It wasn't just one person. We can sit here and talk about three, four guys with good nights. For us to just play good baseball it has to be all of us. We need contribution from the top, middle and the bottom. As a unit, that was the story of the night was how we played offense, not individual hitters, per se, but just how we played offense as a group and together up and down the lineup.”
Led by Eric Guevara’s 4-for-4 night, Auburn’s one through five hitters were a combined 11-for-19 with 12 runs, three homers and nine RBI. Eight of the nine players in the starting lineup drove in a run in the game.
“It’s great for (Andreas Alvarez) as a pitcher and for us as an offense it does a lot,” Guevara said of the early offense in the game. “It gives us confidence. You see another guy do it, and it just becomes contagious.”
Auburn (14-2) came out swinging with four runs in the first inning and didn’t slow down as the team totaled two more in the second, five in the third, one in the fourth and five more in the fifth to cap off the scoring by matching a season high with 17 runs.
Chase Fralick got the scoring started with a RBI fielder’s choice in the bottom of the first, and Guevara followed with his first of four hits, a RBI single up the middle. Brandon McCraine drove in another with a double to right center and his younger brother, Mason McCraine, capped off the inning with a RBI groundout.
UAB (10-7) answered with a pair of unearned runs after a passed ball and fielding miscue in the top of the second, but Auburn responded right back with two runs of its own on Fralick’s team-leading fifth home run of the season in the home half of the inning.
“It brings a good vibe to the dugout,” Fralick said of the offense. “There's a lot of intensity that goes in those swings, and it can really change momentum of games when stuff like that happens. When we take the momentum early in games with some big swings it relaxes our starting pitcher, and our lineup only wants to do more for our team.”
The offense continued to produce by matching a season high with five runs on five hits in the third. Chris Rembert drove in two on a double to left center before Guevara launched his fourth home run of the season 414 feet to center field. It was Guevara’s fourth home run in the last seven games and marked his eighth straight contest with at least one RBI.
Not to be outdone, Bub Terrell followed Guevara’s two-run homer with a solo shot of his own, marking the second time this season the two have gone back-to-back in game.
Scoring for the fourth straight inning, Ethin Bingaman hit a RBI double in the fourth, and the offense capped off the output with five runs in the fifth. Mason McCraine drove in his second run of the game on a sacrifice fly to left, and Lucas Steele put an exclamation point on the night with a grand slam to right.
On the mound, Andreas Alvarez (2-1) earned his second straight midweek win, allowing two unearned runs in 5.0 innings.
LJ Cormier followed Alvarez and struck out the side in the sixth, before Connor Gatwood made his second appearance of the season and turned in a scoreless seventh.
Hitting the road for its first true road contests of the year, Auburn opens Southeastern Conference play at Missouri (15-2), winners of 13 straight games, Friday through Sunday in Columbia.