Mike Bianucci No. 3: right fielder, slides into third base. Pete Riley / PHOTO EDITOR
Last weekend, the Auburn baseball team won a three-game series against Tennessee by taking the final game of the series on Sunday 4 to 3.
Auburn advanced to 18-10 overall and 4-5 in the SEC. The loss dropped Tennessee to 16-9 overall and 5-4 in the SEC.
Starting pitcher for Auburn was Bradley Hendrix, a freshman from Birmingham, He pitched 5 and 2/3 innings giving up seven hits and two earned runs against 26 batters faced.
Auburn was shut out until scoring two runs in the eighth inning.
Michael Hurst, a sophomore from Vestavia, was the winning pitcher. Hurst came in at the top of the ninth, surrendering only one hit while throwing two strikeouts, shutting the Volunteers out for the inning.
“They told me to come in and throw strikes to get outs anyway I could, and I was able to get the job done,” Hurst said.
In the bottom of the ninth the Tigers trailed 3-2. Catcher Tony Caldwell, a freshman from Winter Springs, Fla., hit a run scoring double. Shortstop Matt Hall, a junior from Scottsdale, Ariz., hit a walk-off RBI single with Brian Fletcher, a freshman from Fayetteville, Ga., scoring the winning run.
The winning hit pushed Hall’s current hitting streak to nine games.
“I was hoping just to get a good pitch to hit, and I was looking curveball the whole way,” Hall said. “He threw two of them, and I let the second one go by for a strike before he hung a third one that I was able to get pretty good.”
Auburn head coach Tom Slater said Hall’s performance comes from his dedication and time commitment
“Matt has really been swinging the bat well,” Slater said. “He’s been working hard, putting extra work in the cages with coach Mosiello, and we were really excited to see him up in that situation.”
With what seemed to be a comfortable 4-0 lead going into the 5th inning of Saturday’s game, the Tigers were held to only one hit for the remainder of the game. Auburn lost to the Volunteers 8-4 in 11 innings.
Bryan Woodall, a junior from Phenix City, suffered his first loss of the season, surrendering four runs to Tennessee.
Taylor Thompson and Evan Crawford held the Volunteers scoreless for a combined three innings with Woodall pitching the final two innings.
Auburn delivered an offensive slugfest Friday, scoring eight runs in the first four innings of the series opener against Tennessee. Hunter Morris,
Joseph Sanders and Trent Mummey provided three hits each in the Tigers 12-6 win.
This weekend, Auburn will travel to Arkansas to face the Razorbacks.
