It was a long time coming for Auburn ace Keegan Thompson. Thompson had not been on the mound for Auburn since the Tigers’ 1-0 victory over Mercer in the NCAA Tournament on May 30, 2015.
That 630-day wait finally ended Friday afternoon in Auburn’s 9-0 Opening Day victory over George Washington.
Thompson (1-0) earned the win in his return, firing six shutout innings, allowing just four hits and walking only one. He threw 64 pitches, 44 for strikes.
“I just tried to throw strikes,” Thompson said. “After that first inning I got the adrenaline calmed down a little bit. I just tried to go out there and throw. It was good.”
“Today, I felt really good. Had my velocity up a little bit more. It’s one hundred percent.”
“He didn’t give a lot of freebies,” Auburn head coach Butch Thompson said. “And I think that’s how you can wind up at the end of the day with a bunch of zeros on the board. All of those dominoes fell in place for him after not being on the mound for so long. That was really positive to see.”
Senior Daniel Robert finished the afternoon 4-4, falling a homerun away from the cycle. The four hits tied his career-high. It was the third time Robert accomplished that feat.
“It was awesome,” Robert said. “It was good to see some balls to hit and fortunately put a good swing on it. Everybody did such a good job getting on base and giving me good pitches to hit.”
“I thought it took him a month to get four hits last year,” Butch joked. “He just hit the ball to all parts of the field today and looked great.”
Auburn jumped on the Colonials early, striking for two quick runs in the first inning on RBI singles by Josh Anthony and Dylan Ingram.
“Whenever you’re playing with Keegan on the mound, you get a couple of runs early, you know you have a pretty good chance to win,” Robert said.
The Tigers notched three runs in the third and four in the seventh en route to their seventh-consecutive Opening Day victory.
“Our guys I thought all the way around handled the game so well,” Butch said. “I thought defense played solid, that’s huge for Keegan Thompson to get back on the mound and fairly efficient. It was a two and a half hour game and I thought he got us started off the right way.”
Eight of the nine Auburn starters tallied a hit in the blowout victory. Ingram and Damon Haecker each recorded 2 RBIs. Robert, Anthony, Jonah Todd and Bowen McGuffin each had one RBI.
Andrew Mitchell, Corey Herndon and Elliott Anderson combined for three scoreless innings out of the Auburn bullpen. The trio allowed just one hit and recorded two strikeouts.
"I think everyone in the locker room feels good about Opening Day," Butch said. "Now we just have to focus on what's next."
George Washington starter Elliott Raimo (0-1) did not make it out of the third inning, allowing five runs on seven hits and three walks in 2.2 innings.
Auburn (1-0) and George Washington (0-1) will continue their series tomorrow with a doubleheader beginning at 11 a.m. Casey Mize will be on the mound for the Tigers.
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
