Auburn baseball is rolling.
No. 17 Auburn secured its series win with a 5-2 win over No. 21 Tennessee on Saturday night. It was the program's 12th consecutive win and its fifth consecutive series win.
The Volunteers opened with an early lead in the top of the second with a solo home run from Pete Derkay. The score broke Jack Owen’s 28.2 inning streak of not allowing an earned run.
Auburn tied the game in the fourth inning before head coach Butch Thompson pulled Owen in the fifth. Thompson said that Owen was experiencing tightness in his shoulder, but the fourth-year coach said that Owen is not expected to miss his next start.
Brooks Fuller replaced Owen and earned his first career win.
“It presented an opportunity for another one of our freshmen, Brooks Fuller, and he took full advantage of it,” Thompson said. “I thought he was behind the count, threw some extra pitches, especially below the zone. But I thought he figured it out and the fastball got another foot sorta getting to the plate.”
Fuller pitched 3.2 innings, striking out three while allowing one run on two hits and three walks.
For Fuller, an Auburn native, getting his first win in an Auburn uniform was a special moment.
“That was cool, maybe not like that situation,” Fuller said when asked about getting his first win. “I’ve grown up here, it was pretty special.”
While Fuller was finding his way on the mound, his team was backing him up by taking advantage of a few key moments.
Auburn had a four-run fifth after hitting three singles to give Fuller some breathing room.
“I thought we were relentless the inning we had four runs, we kind of linked it up and Edouard Julien had the big swing when we really needed it,” Thompson said.
The fifth-inning offense allowed for Auburn to enter Sunday looking for a sweep of its opening in-conference series.
“But the defense played great,” Fuller said. “Eddie had a really big hit. Some guys, you know Will [and others] stole some bases tonight. It was a big team win”
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