Auburn took on the Tennessee Volunteers Friday night in game two of the series. It was a low-scoring affair, ending with an Auburn victory by a score of 2-0. Coming off of an embarrassing Thursday night performance in which they lost 13-4, the Tigers needed to make a statement in Plainsman Park. That statement came from the mound, and it was heard loud and clear.
Fifth year senior Justin Camp was able to pitch a complete-game shutout, allowing only two hits. Camp came into the game having pitched six consecutive scoreless innings, and after tonight he has pitched 15 consecutive scoreless innings.
“Tonight is about as good as a game thrown in the Southeastern Conference, especially being in a game two situation after playing your worst game of the year and you bounce back.” said Auburn coach Butch Thompson. "You could just tell when he got to the fifth, sixth, seventh inning wherever you are sitting in the park, whether you are in the dugout, the booth, or in the crowd that he could finish this thing.”
The Tigers have spent the entire year relying on high-scoring offense to cover up for inconsistent pitching, but the roles were switched tonight with an almost non-existent offense and a stellar pitching performance. Camp retired 13 batters in a row before a Tennessee bunt-single in the fifth inning. Following the bunt, Camp retired 12 straight to end the game. In all, Camp recorded seven strikeouts, 13 groundouts and five flyouts.
“[This game] was huge," Camp said. "Last night was a disappointment. We didn't play well, we had errors, we didn't really pitch that well. They always talk about you need something to turn around quick so today was almost like a ‘must win’ situation and we showed out.”
Offensively, the Tigers started the game hot after Blake Logan and Damon Haecker each brought in one run in the first inning, but the bats went cold after that. As a team, the Tigers only had seven hits and left the bases loaded in the third.
“The one thing missing was a lot of our offense," Thompson said. “That's usually been our spark or what we go to and I think we had more energy in our dugout than any game we’ve had. We really fed off of our pitching and defense. I think that touch of embarrassment last night focused all of the kids and they really wanted to come out tonight and play a great game.”
Auburn improves to 16-19 on the season and 4-10 in the SEC. The Tigers are back again Saturday at 1 p.m. in the rubber match against the Volunteers.
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