Fresh off its first College World Series appearance since 1997, Auburn baseball is back on the Plains. The Tigers won their Opening Day game against the University of Illinois-Chicago Flames 5-3 behind Cody Greenhill’s dominant relief appearance.
After a three-up, three-down inning by starter Tanner Burns in the top of the first, Auburn quickly got Burns run support in the bottom of the frame. Judd Ward got the bats started for the Tigers with a leadoff double into left-center field. Two batters later, Stephen Williams knocked Ward in on an RBI single into center field. Auburn’s second run in the inning came courtesy of designated hitter Tyler Miller, who tripled off the right field wall, scoring Conor Davis.
Miller, a junior college transfer originally from Spanish Fort, Alabama, finished the day 1-for-3 with a walk in his Auburn debut.
In the third inning, UIC tied the game at 2-2 when Joshua Figueroa hit one over the left-field wall with a runner on first. Auburn returned the favor in the bottom of the third, getting two runs of its own off a sac fly from Conor Davis and an RBI infield single from Matt Scheffler. This pushed the Auburn lead to 4-2.
After UIC scored on a wild pitch to bring it within one, Ryan Bliss hit his second double of the night in the fourth, scoring Kason Howell. Bliss finished the night 2-for-4 with two doubles and an RBI.
Tanner Burns threw 81 pitches over five innings, earning the win for Auburn. The junior struck out seven and allowed three runs on four hits while only walking one. Burns allowed all hits and runs in the third and fourth inning, before settling back down in the fifth. The Auburn star came out after the fifth, but ended the night on a good note.
“It was nice to see [Burns] go back out for the fifth inning and have a real quick 1-2-3 inning,” coach Butch Thompson said. “I thought that was positive for him.”
In the bottom of the eighth inning, Howell hit a ground ball and was thrown out at first. After crossing the bag Howell clutched his left leg, and appeared to be in some pain. Howell left the game and was replaced by Austin Turner. Thompson said after the game that it was a hamstring injury and that Howell is questionable for Saturday’s doubleheader.
Cody Greenhill came in to relieve Burns in the sixth inning, and was electric in his 2020 debut. Greenhill pitched four innings out of the pen, sitting down all but one of the thirteen batters he faced. The only base runner Greenhill allowed was a two-out walk to Cory Moore in the ninth. The Russellville, Alabama, native struck out six batters, reaching the mid-90s in pitch velocity at times.
“I like those innings,” Greenhill said. “After I kinda slowed down, I got my rhythm, ended up landing my pitches. That’s what I like about having those innings to work with.”
The four hits that UIC had on the evening all came from the bottom three of the lineup. Auburn pitchers controlled the top half of UIC’s lineup, which went a combined 0-for-22.
“As an offense, it just shows us that we need to score first and let our guys do our thing,” Bliss said. “Having the confidence that Cody’s coming out of the pen right after Tanner Burns, it’s big time.”
Auburn continues its opening weekend Saturday with a doubleheader against UIC, with the first game set to start at 1 p.m. CST.
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