Auburn’s bats were hot Wednesday night as the Tigers defeated Troy 13-1.
“It was our largest opening day crowd since 2013,” said Head coach Butch Thompson. “And it was a midweek. I tip my hat to our fans. I knew this was coming.”
Tommy Sheehan got his second start of the season after going just one inning against Oklahoma in the season opener last week.
Sheehan started off slow again with his first nine pitches all being balls. With two runners on quickly it looked like the Tigers were in a lot of trouble, but Sheehan did well to limit the damage.
After two long groundouts, Troy got one run on the board, but a strikeout ended the top half of the inning.
Already down a run, Auburn wasted no time finding its rhythm offensively. Third basemen Blake Rambusch opened the inning with a single up the gap, and Samford transfer Sonny DiChiara followed with a walk.
A couple of at-bats later, including a throwing error from Troy to keep the inning alive, Auburn found the bases loaded. With two outs, Bryson Ware stepped to the plate and sent a ball 390 feet to left field for a grand slam. Auburn quickly regained the lead.
“One thing coach says is ‘in big moments, focus on the little things, try to make the little things happen, don’t try to do too much,’” Ware said. “So I guess that’s what I need to be doing. Staying through the middle of the field, not trying to pull off the ball. Not trying to do too much.”
With a few insurance runs in his back pocket, Sheehan began to settle in – sending the Trojans back to the dugout without a hit or a drawn walk in the second inning.
“Once we got it fixed a little bit, Tommy started laying down good tracks,” Thompson said. “I believe in him so much and the team does too. We believe in him so much, and we want to get him going.”
Rambusch, already at his second at-bat through two innings, hit another single and stole second to move into scoring position. Kason Howell drew a walk, and with just one out, Troy was in major trouble with DiChiara, Auburn’s hottest hitter, up to bat. He made the Trojans pay.
The Hoover, Alabama, native dug in and crushed a ball to straightaway center to improve Auburn’s lead to 7-1.
In the top of the third inning, Sheehan found himself in some trouble again after a walk and a single from Troy. A high chopper back to the mound advanced those runners an extra base in the next at-bat. But Sheehan kept calm and forced Troy into a flyout to end the inning.
Sheehan finished the game with three innings pitched, three walks, one hit and one earned run.
Rambusch grabbed his third single of the game in the fourth inning. After a wild pitch and stealing third, the redshirt junior came home thanks to a DiCharia sacrifice fly.
That was not all the scoring the Tigers found in the fourth inning, however. Ryan Dyal was hit by a pitch, and Brody Moore hit a single. Another wild pitch by the Trojans moved both runners into scoring position, and a Ware single brought the pair home. The two-run single gave Ware six RBIs in the game and Auburn a 10-1 lead.
Hayden Mullins and Mason Barnett came on to pitch in relief of Sheehan and shut down the Trojans with ease. During the three innings the pair pitched, Troy recorded one hit and no runs and struck out twice. Barnett sat the Trojans down in just six pitches in the sixth inning.
Auburn continued to tally runs in the sixth inning. A DiChiara double, Dyal walk and Moore single brought the bases loaded with no outs. Ware struck out but Caleb Foster cleared the bases with a double for his second hit of the game.
Brooks Fuller came in to pitch with the 12-run lead and took care of business – holding the Trojans scoreless for a sixth consecutive inning. True freshman Parker Carlson came into the game in the eighth inning and did the same thing as Auburn was in cruise control.
After a scoreless bottom half of the eighth, Nate LaRue took control of the mound in the final inning of the game to put Troy away for good.
“We gave up five base hits but no extra-base hits on our side,” Thompson said. “So that was positive.”
Auburn’s pitchers held Troy to just five hits and one run all game and was nearly flawless after the first inning.
All 13 of Auburn’s RBIs came from the trio of Ware, DiCharia and Foster.
Auburn will face Yale on Friday night in its next game. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. and will be broadcast on SEC Network-plus.
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Jacob is a sophomore from Leeds, Alabama. This is his second year with The Auburn Plainsman.
Twitter: @JacobWaters_
