AUBURN, Ala. – No. 4 Auburn smashed six solo home runs to eliminate UCF 9-3 Sunday at Plainsman Park and advance to the NCAA Auburn Regional final.
“We continue to try to take another step,” Auburn coach Butch Thompson said. “We’ve got to stay hot at the plate and the guys swung the bats great. Petro started slow, finally got settled and Alex was tremendous for us, getting us to six innings and turned the ball over to Heztler for one of his best outings of the year.”
The Tigers earned a rematch with fourth-seeded Milwaukee, needing to beat the Panthers twice to move on to next weekend’s super regional.
After a three-hour weather delay, UCF’s DeAmez Ross hit the second pitch of the game off the brick exterior of the Player Development Center, an indication of how balls hit to right would carry thanks to a strong tailwind.
The Tigers took full advantage, hitting four of their six homers to right, including two by Chase Fralick.
Trailing 2-0 in the bottom of the third, Mason McCraine hit Auburn’s first home run. Fralick followed one batter later with his team-leading 17th homer of the season to tie the score at 2-2.
Freshman Ethin Bingaman gave Auburn a 3-2 lead with his fourth home run of the tournament, tying a program regional record held by Scott Long (1967) and Todd Faulkner (1998), Bingaman’s 15th of the season.
Chris Rembert put the Tigers ahead 4-2 in the bottom of the fifth with a sacrifice fly, scoring Mason McCraine.
UCF’s Zak Skinner pulled the Knights within a run with a solo home run in the top of the sixth.
Cade Belyeu and Taylor Belza answered with solo shots in the bottom of the sixth for a 6-3 Auburn lead.
In the seventh inning, Fralick drilled his second homer of the game, tying Bingaman’s regional record with his fourth home run of the weekend to put Auburn up 7-3.
Alex Petrovic (10-2) earned the win, gutting it out for 6.0 innings while throwing a career-high 108 pitches, striking out six while allowing a pair of earned runs on five hits.
Ryan Hetzler relieved Petrovic to start the seventh inning, retiring the first seven batters he faced until a one-out single in the ninth. Hetzler earned his third save of the season, striking out five in 3.0 scoreless Innings.
Auburn scored in six consecutive innings, tacking on two more insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth on Mason McCraine’s RBI double and Fralick’s bases loaded HBP.
Eight of Auburn’s 10 hits went for extra bases. After starting three hours later than scheduled because of storms in the area, the game lasted 3 hours and 19 minutes, excluding a 50-minute in-game weather delay, ending 7 hours and 15 minutes after its scheduled start time.
“Belyeu probably saved a run or two on an amazing catch,” Thompson said. "Rembert had another one and Fralick was great all the way around, being our catcher, running our pitching staff and having a big night at the plate as well. We’ve got to move on to the next, quick turnaround and keep trying to compete in this tournament.”
Auburn (40-20) plays Milwaukee Sunday at 10:10 p.m. CT in the regional final, hoping to force a winner-take-all showdown Monday.
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on X: @jeff_shearer