It was another clinic at the plate for Auburn on Wednesday night, as the Tigers throttled the Alabama State Hornets, 14-0 in five innings at Jane B. Moore Field.
A ten-run first inning propelled Auburn to another run-rule victory. The Tigers cycled through the pitching trio of Makayla Martin, Kaylee Carlson and Ashlee Swindle to turn in a no-run, three hit contest. The shutout was Auburn’s 12th of 2017 and the ten Tiger scores in the first were a season-high for runs in an inning.
The explosive opening stanza for Auburn was kicked off by Kendall Veach’s base-clearing double, which scored three Auburn runners. Redshirt junior Madi Gipson followed up with a monster triple, scoring Veach from second base. A Morgan Podany single and a Carlee Wallace walk forced the next two runs home. Redshirt senior Haley Fagan then shot a double into center field to push the lead to 8-0, followed by Gipson’s second hit of the inning, this one being a single that tallied the ninth and tenth runs.
“We’re playing the way we need to play,” Auburn head coach Clint Meyers said. “Defense is good and we’ve been getting some timely hitting. Our quality at-bats are going up. We’re moving in the right to direction to play in the SEC.”
Meyers began to round out a young rotation in the third and fourth innings, allowing the Tiger youth of Brittany Maresette, Bree Fornis, Justus Perry, Alyssa Rivera and Ashlee Swindle to log valuable minutes.
“It’s not so much telling them what to do, it’s more calming them down,” shortstop Haley Fagan said of the young players in upcoming conference play. “When they do get opportunities in big games, we tell them to just breathe. We know they can do it or else they wouldn’t be in the game.”
The Auburn pitching unit entered Wednesday’s game as the most efficient in the country in terms of combined ERA, with a mark of 0.68. The Tigers also lead the nation in double-plays, with 18 in 22 games.
“That’s our philosophy,” Meyers said. “We’ve got to have good defense. We work on it every day. If you ask the coaches, we should have about 21 [double plays]. We break the film down and see we were a little slow here, or we missed a ball there. They take great pride in their defense to turn those double-plays. If you keep that double-play streak going in the SEC, that’s going to make pitching a lot easier.”
Along with Veach at first base, Haley Fagan has been the most instrumental Tiger in turning the double-plays. Fagan addressed the importance of Auburn’s defensive efficiency.
“We work our double plays, we do a million of them in practice,” Fagan said. “It’s such a momentum builder, it can kill the other team’s rally. With how hard our pitchers work to get us ground balls, it’s really special that we are able to do that.”
Through the 22-game non-conference opening slate, Auburn tallied a 20-2 overall record, including notable wins over then-No. 1 Oklahoma and No. 13 James Madison. The Tigers open SEC play with LSU, beginning the three-game series on Friday night at Jane B. Moore Field.
LSU (18-4) currently ranks 12th in the Top 25. The upcoming series will also be the conference opener for the visitors from Baton Rouge.
Auburn’s home stand has been highlighted by offensively efficient blowouts over traditionally weaker programs. Meyers recognizes that such victories in the highly-competitive Southeastern Conference will not be easy to come by.
“Runs in the SEC aren’t plentiful,” Meyers said. “You look at the pitching the SEC has and they have low-scoring games. The winner usually [wins] because the loser does something to allow it.”
Makayla Martin (9-2) picked up the win, albeit in just a pair of innings pitched. Meyers announced after the game that Carlson will start Friday against LSU, Martin will start game two and Carlson will start the final game on Sunday. First pitch for game one is set for 6 p.m. CST, with streaming available on the SEC Network Plus.
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