HOOVER, Ala. – No. 6 Auburn exploded for nine runs in the first inning and never looked back in a 14-2 run-rule victory against Samford Tuesday night at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.
All nine players in the starting lineup recorded a hit, including seven with multiple hits, and the 17 hits in the contest were tied for the second most this season. The Tigers launched three more home runs Tuesday and have now hit 14 in the last six games, including 10 accounting for multiple runs.
“It’s always a vulnerable time, and you want to play good early,” Thompson said of the midweek games late in the year. “The guys just came out swinging the bat. I was most impressed by (Eric) Guevara’s at-bat, the second at-bat he had in the first inning. He hit the home run, but that low line drive the other way lets you know the guys were locked in.”
Eric Guevara’s 445-foot home run in the top of the first set the tone as the Tigers (28-12, 10-8 SEC) started the game with the biggest inning of the season. Ethin Bingaman followed Guevara with a two-run homer of his own later in the first, and Eddie Madrigal hit his first long ball of the season to start the third.
“It was good,” Madrigal said. “I was just trying to hit the ball and keep it simple. It felt good to get a ball outside of the yard today. Been chasing that feeling and it was good to feel that.”
Guevara wasted no time extending his hit streak to 16 games and getting the scoring started as he followed Mason McCraine’s leadoff walk with a two-run homer that nearly reached the parking lot beyond the left field fence. Chase Fralick singled to right center, and Bingaman followed two batters later with a two-run homer of his own to a similar spot in left field. The next five batters reached on a double, two singles, a hit batter and an error, and all eventually came in to score to make it 9-0 after the top of the first.
Guevara, who recorded two hits and drove in three runs in the first inning, is now tied with Ike Irish (2024) for the longest hit streak since Bryson Ware’s 18-game hit streak from Mar. 14-Apr. 14, 2023.
Samford (20-19) responded with a two-run homer in the bottom of the first. Following the home run, Griffin Graves responded to retire five of the next six batters he faced.
Auburn’s offense continued in the top of the third as Madrigal hit a leadoff homer to make it 10-2, marking Madrigal’s first home run of the season. McCraine drove in his second run of the game with a double down the right field line, scoring Bristol Carter from second after a hit-by-pitch and stolen base.
Three walks and a base hit in the fourth made it 12-2 with Carter bringing in a run on a bases-loaded walk.
Fralick and Chris Rembert traded back-to-back double in the fifth to add on to the advantage, and Rembert eventually scored on a wild pitch to make it 14-2.
LJ Cormier (1-0) turned in 2.0 scoreless innings in relief with five strikeouts, including three strikeouts looking in the fourth. The outing marked Cormier’s fourth straight scoreless appearance and his first career win.
Coming off his career-best 3.0 scoreless innings at Florida last Thursday, Abe Chancellor pitched a scoreless fifth with a strikeout. Christian Chatterton turned in a scoreless sixth before Marcel Kulik struck out the side to end the game in the seventh.
Auburn returns to Plainsman Park to host No. 9 Oklahoma (27-12, 10-8 SEC) in its second to last home series Friday through Sunday.