AUBURN, Ala. – The long ball accounted for seven of No. 6 Auburn’s runs in a 10-0 run-rule victory against Winthrop Friday night at Plainsman Park.
Auburn’s three home runs and six extra-base hits matched a season high. The six extra-base hits came from five different players in the lineup.
“The majority of our runs tonight were scored without the leadoff man on and six of our 11 hits were extra-base hits,” head coach Butch Thompson said. “We’ve played 13 baseball games, but I felt like early on it was slow offense. Now, it feels like in advantage counts, there are more threatening swings to the plus side. The three home runs were huge tonight, starting with Chase (Fralick), and (Eric) Guevara got off a great swing.”
The team’s one through five hitters went a combined 9-for-15 with seven runs and eight RBI in the contest.
Chase Fralick got the scoring started with a three-run home run in the bottom of the first inning, marking his team-best fourth home run of the season, including his second three-run homer in the last three games.
"I think it's just a little bit of a change of a mindset,” Fralick said on his team-leading four home runs. “I’m trying to do a little bit more damage early in counts and getting better pitches. Just putting some good swings on the ball right now and they happen to leave the ballpark."
With the lineup linking it up, Jake Marciano (2-0) turned in 6.0 scoreless innings en route to earning the win. He allowed three hits with a walk and six strikeouts as the Tigers turned in their first shutout of the season.
“For me, I was just trying to go inside and place balls, but later in the game we decided to just attack the hitters and really go at them instead of trying to place the ball inside,” Marciano said of settling into the game in the middle innings. “Let’s try to aim more middle and let the ball play from there.”
It didn’t take long for Auburn (11-2) to start the scoring as Bristol Carter and Chris Rembert reached on a walk and single, respectively, before Fralick drove them both in with his three-run homer three batters in the game.
Marciano worked around some traffic on the base paths in the first, allowing three to reach on a pair of hit-by-pitches and his first walk of the season. However, he got out of the inning thanks to a double play and a strikeout.
With Marciano settling in on the mound, Auburn added to its advantage with a two-run home run from Carter in the fourth. Mason McCraine tripled with one out and Carter drove them both in with his second homer of the season.
Leading 5-0, Auburn took advantage of a Winthrop (10-3) fielding miscue to add five runs in the fifth. Rembert drove in the first run of the inning on a sacrifice fly to right field before a fly ball to left with two outs was dropped an allowed two more runs to score. Eric Guevara then capped off the scoring in the contest with his third home run of the season, all coming in the last four games. The ball left Guevara’s bat at 106 miles per hour and traveled 413 feet through the dense air.
Following Marciano’s second quality start of the season, Ethan Harden turned in a clean seventh inning, including a strikeout, to end the game.
Due to Sunday’s forecast, the two teams will finish the series with a Saturday doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m. CT. Game two will begin 45 minutes following the conclusion of game one.