Auburn bounced back in game two in the Presbyterian series Saturday with a 3-0 win under the command of freshman Keegan Thompson, who pitched the first one-hitter for the Tigers since 2002.
"I felt pretty good today," Thompson said. "We had a good plan going in with their hitters. I missed a couple times, but our defense played behind me."
During the first three innings, Auburn continued to struggle with leaving runners on base and did not give Thompson the run support he needed.
But in the bottom of the fourth, Damek Tomscha put Auburn on the board with a base hit RBI single to score Ryan Tella, who reached on a walk and stole second.
Thompson did not allow a hit until the fifth inning when Presbyterian's Brandon Paul hit a double that right fielder Anfernee Grier almost caught on a dive. Thompson bounced back with two consecutive outs to maintain Auburn's 1-0 lead.
In the bottom of the fifth, Auburn started with a one-out standup double by Grier, who went 2-for-3 to extend his hitting streak to 10 games.
In the top of the sixth Thompson pitched his fourth 1-2-3 inning of the day.
Auburn gave Thompson two insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth.
Tomscha started the rally with a single, and Daniel Robert advanced him to third with a successful hit and run single.
With runners on the corners, freshman Connor Short hit an RBI single to score Tomscha and take the 2-0 lead.
Short's clutch hit also caused the first pitching change of the day when Brian Kehner replaced Chandler Knox on the mound for Presbyterian.
After the pitching change, pinch hitter Jordan Ebert hit a pop up to the first baseman. In Damon Haecker's at-bat, Auburn converted a double steal to score Daniel Robert. Auburn went scoreless in their last two at bats but finished the day with 10 hits.
Thompson continued to deal on the mound with a five pitch 1-2-3 seventh inning, another 1-2-3 inning in the eighth and then a scoreless ninth to complete the shutout.
Thompson did not walk a single batter, and Presbyterian only got three runners on base all day, reaching on one hit and two errors.
Auburn hopes to win the series against Presbyterian tomorrow at 1 p.m.
"I want to compliment our fans," Golloway said. "If we started this year 9-1 or 8-2 or 10-0, I wouldn't have recognized how special our fans are. It took a 5-5 start to recognize how special our fans are here."
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