The Auburn Tigers Baseball team accomplished its first sweep in league play since 2003 after completing the last of a three-game series against the Georgia Bulldogs in Athens Sunday. Auburn finished 19-3 with the help of junior Hunter Morris' 14 RBI, nine of which came in the final game.
Morris hit his 30th and 31st home runs in the sixth and seventh innings, one of which was his first career grand slam. "I was seeing the ball pretty well, and I felt good in the box," Morris said in a press release Sunday. "I was just trying to be productive for the team, and it resulted in a lot of runs being scored."
Scoring 43 total runs against UGA throughout the series, the Tigers improved their rankings to 14-5, 3-0 SEC. Junior Grant Dayton (2-1), Auburn's starting pitcher, allowed three runs - one earned - in seven innings of pitching and received his first SEC win since the opening of conference series in 2009 at Tennessee.
"Today was big for me for a couple of reasons," Dayton said. "For one, I haven't been going long in games, and two, I just wanted to go out and give us a chance to win. The way we have been hitting, it's hard not to win."
Georgia (8-12, 0-3 SEC) scored the first two (unearned) runs of the game in the third inning, but Auburn came back by scoring seven runs off Georgia starter Jeff Walters (0-2) and reliever Blake Dietrich at the top of the fourth inning.
"Grant Dayton was the difference today," said coach John Pawlowski. "Grant went out there and gave us seven quality innings, one walk and put the ball in play." Junior Justin Hargett (2-for-5, 2 BB, 2 RBI) and Morris had two-RBI
singles resulting from a throwing error by Todd Hankins, Georgia second baseman, in the fourth. Then, Morris' grand slam at the top of the sixth gave Auburn an 11-2 lead and gave him a spot in Auburn's career top 10 for home runs.
"Hunter came up big for us time and time again," Pawlowski said. "He's given us some quality at-bats, and it's important to have some stability in the lineup with him and (junior Brian Fletcher.)"
Later in the sixth, sophomore Creede Simpson (0-for-4, 2BB, R) walked, went to third after a pair of wild pitches and scored on Caldwell's infield single. In the seventh inning, Morris' hit gave Auburn a 15-3 lead into the eighth, during which junior Tony Caldwell hit his third home run of the season.
Staying strong into the ninth, sophomore Casey McElroy 1-for-4, 2 BB, 3R) hit an RBI single followed by sophomore Caleb Bowen's singled with two outs. The Tigers closed out Friday's game with a 20-3 win and ranked 12-5, 1-0 SEC, while the Bulldogs fell to 8-10, 0-1 SEC. Auburn barely pulled out a 4-3 win Saturday with the help of senior Austin Hubbard's pitching 3 1/3 innings to save the game.
After only a day to recuperate, the Tigers will travel to Birmingham to play Samford at 6 p.m. CST.
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.
