A day after defeating Yale 9-0 in the series opener, Auburn split two highly-competitive, one-run contests with the Bulldogs on Saturday to take the series two games to one.
Coming off 13-run and nine-run performances against Troy and Yale in the past two games, Auburn struggled on offense against Yale on Saturday, producing only eight runs and nine hits in 19 innings.
"For the first time, I thought ours bats kind of lacked and didn't get in good position," said head coach Butch Thompson. "Especially in advantage counts. Righties were fouling it off towards the Wellness Kitchen and lefties were going towards the parking deck, and that has not been the case for us."
In the first game on Saturday, leading off the bottom of the ninth in a tied game, Kason Howell deposited a home run over the center field wall to walk it off for Auburn by a score of 4-3.
The win didn't come easily, though. Yale took Auburn by surprise early.
The Bulldogs kept the Tigers off the base path in the first two innings and off the scoreboard in the first three innings, while Yale pushed across three runs on seven hits to that point.
In the fourth inning, things started to click for the Tigers, and they took control. After Yale scored in the first three innings on starter Joseph Gonzalez, the Tiger bullpen took over and recorded six straight scoreless innings.
Sonny DiChiara (18) congratulates a teammate against Yale at Plainsman Park on Feb. 26.
Auburn pushed across two runs in the fourth on a Cole Foster groundout and an RBI single by Howell.
In the fifth inning, Sonny DiChiara's 399-foot blast knotted the game up 3-3, which remained the score until the final frame when Howell launched the game winning homer.
From DiChiara's homer, the bats went quiet and the bullpens dominated. The sixth, seventh and eighth innings all ended scoreless and the game remained tied. The Yale bullpen only allowed one base hit from Auburn from the sixth to the eighth inning.
However, it only took one swing for Howell to give Auburn the win in the ninth. Howell accounted for over half of the team’s hit total. He went 3-for-4 with two RBIs to elevate Auburn to a win.
“I wasn’t really trying to end the game there, but it kind of just happened,” Howell said. “I think it was a 3-2 count, I was just trying to get a base runner on in the last inning there and good things happened.
Even though Auburn came out on top, Yale exposed Auburn after an uncompetitive game one of the series that Auburn won 9-0.
The Bulldogs picked on Auburn catcher Jake Wyandt behind the plate all game, stealing six bases on six attempts. Three of the steals came from Yale’s Carson Swank.
Yale also out-hit Auburn, getting nine base knocks as opposed to the Tigers’ five. The Tigers also made an error in the field and allowed a runner to advance on a wild pitch in the first inning which led to a run.
Gonzalez, coming off a strong five inning win versus Texas Tech, struggled in his starting role and needed his bullpen to bail him out. He surrendered three runs on seven hits on 47 pitches in his three-inning outing.
On a positive note, the bullpen was nearly flawless, keeping the game within striking distance until the offense got on the board.
Three relievers got six strikeouts and gave up just two hits over six scoreless innings.
Carson Skipper took over for Gonzalez and hurled three scoreless innings to help Auburn gain momentum. Burkhalter’s two innings, where he allowed no baserunners, earned him the win in game one.
The game two victory sealed the series win versus Yale. Next, the two teams prepared for the third, and last, matchup of the series.
In game three, Auburn dropped a back-and-forth, 10-inning affair to Yale 5-4.
The contest started out as a pitcher’s duel, as neither team scored until the seventh inning. Trace Bright looked spectacular in his second start of the year.
The junior worked six scoreless frames and struck out six, one short of his career best. He allowed just six baserunners on three singles and three walks, and none of them got as far as third base.
The first offensive threat came in the fourth inning, when DiChiara lined a double in the left-center field gap to lead off.
After a ground out to first base advanced him to third, Yale’s Colton Shaw got a strikeout and a flyout to kill the Auburn threat and keep it a scoreless affair.
DiChiara acted as the only player to reach third base up until the seventh frame, and was the only player to record an extra base hit to that point.
After Bright exited the game in the seventh inning, Yale got through to the bullpen and broke the scoreless tie.
Lefty Garrett Wade took over for Bright and came in to face two left-handed batters, fanning one and walking one.
On the first pitch from ensuing reliever John Armstrong, Yale's Pierce Blohowiak took off and successfully stole second before coming around to touch the plate on a blast off the right field wall by Jake Williams to put Yale up 1-0 going to the bottom half of the seventh.
Right away, the Tigers answered back.
In the home section of the seventh, Nate Larue and Howell led off with walks. After a ground out advanced the runners, Foster hammered a ground ball through the right side that scored two, seizing their first lead of the affair.
The back-and forth scoring continued into the eighth inning, as Yale’s Jimmy Chatfield drilled a moonshot over the green monster in left field for a solo home run that tied the contest once again, this time at two apiece.
Starting off the home part of the eighth frame, Blake Rambusch replied with a 395-foot solo shot of his own to left-center field to put Auburn up 3-2 heading into the ninth. His first home run of the season could not have come at a better time.
Hayden Mullins answered the call to the bullpen for Auburn in the ninth inning to attempt to end the game. He gave the home fans a scare, as a walk and a passed ball put a runner on second base with no outs.
Just when the Tigers could taste a win, Yale's Williams drove a ball down the third base line that got past the outstretched glove of Rambusch and tied the game with one out in the final inning. Carson Swilling entered the game and was able to keep it tied going to the bottom of the ninth.
The bottom of the ninth did not result in a walk-off for Auburn this time.
With two outs, a walk and a steal by Bryson Ware got him in scoring position, but Foster went down on strikes for the final out.
As Auburn frequently searched for a guy to close things out in the 10th inning, command was a huge issue.
Three pitchers, Swilling, Ben Bosse and Cade Graznow, saw the mound in the 10th and they each allowed a walk.
Four wild pitches allowed Yale runners to advance in the inning. Two runs ended up scoring for Yale in the 10th: one on a wild pitch and one on a bloop single that fell in left field.
Auburn’s final comeback attempt fell just short.
Auburn loaded the bases with one out for Ryan Dyal, who took a bases-loaded walk to cut the deficit to one and keep the bases full. Larue then struck out and Howell flew out to center field to end the night with a one-run loss.
Once again, hits were hard to come by for Auburn in game three. The Bulldogs racked up eight hits compared to just four for Auburn.
“We need more than Sonny (DiChiara) and Rambusch and occasionally Kason (Howell) doing things for us,” Thompson said. “They walked (DiChiara) intentionally to put the winning run on. At some point in time we have to link it up, and somebody else has to cash that in.”
Despite a strong pitching performance overall in the series, the bullpen faltered in extra innings in its third game in two days. Walks and wild pitches brought on the team’s downfall in game three.
“We have to figure out some guys who can do some things, and figure out who else can complement the depth of our pitching staff,” Thompson said. “At the end of the day, four of their five runs were with a walk. We didn’t put our head in the mitt there and trust our stuff in the zone, and some balls got away.”
The Tigers move to 5-2 on the season, and take the series with Yale despite splitting the doubleheader on Saturday. The team gets the next two days off before a series with Alabama State in Plainsman Park on Tuesday.
“We tried to do everything we could to win this series and focus on this game,” Thompson said. “We’ll let the dust settle and do the same thing. We have two days now before we get into Alabama State and UAB.”
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