After its first series sweep of the season, Auburn returned to Plainsman Park on Tuesday night to take on UAB. The pitching duo of Tommy Vail and Chase Allsup controlled the game, allowing a combined six baserunners, as the Tigers won 4-1. The win was Auburn's fifth straight and extended the Tigers' unbeaten streak to nine games.
The game got off to a slow start, but Auburn third baseman Bryson Ware put the Tigers on the scoreboard with his seventh home run of the season in the fourth inning. Ware also smacked a triple to center field in the sixth, part of a three-hit game. Ware fell a double shy of hitting for the cycle.
“I knew the scouting report on the guy was he was going to throw a lot of offspeed pitches. I just saw an offspeed pitch pop, and I got enough of it to get it out,” Ware said.
Meanwhile, UAB remained scoreless until the top of the ninth when senior Christian Hall hit an RBI single with two outs. The Blazers tallied just three hits and took three walks in the game.
Shortstop Cole Foster, the reigning Brooks Wallace Shortstop of the Week, went 1-for-4 at the plate and had an RBI double on a misplayed pop-up, extending his on-base streak to all 12 games this season.
Brody Moss, a sophomore from Helena, Alabama, started for the Tigers at second base, in place of newcomer Caden Green. Additionally, freshman Ike Irish played in the field for the first time, making a start at first base. Irish is usually the designated hitter for Auburn and came to the Plains with experience as a catcher.
Senior Bobby Peirce hit the dirt Tuesday evening for the first time since the series against USC as the designated hitter for the Tigers. Peirce earned an RBI on a sacrifice fly that gave the Tigers a four-run lead in the sixth. Peirce had been out with hamstring tightness the last few games as a precautionary measure.
Vail, a fifth-year senior, had a promising start at the bump with eight strikeouts and zero earned runs in his 5.2 innings for the Tigers. Vail was perfect through 17 batters before issuing a pair of walks in the sixth inning. Allsup, the right-handed sophomore, stepped up in the sixth and pitched the final 3.1 innings. This was the first game this season in which Auburn only used two pitchers.
“(Tommy) really laid good tracks. (Chase) Allsup did enough for us there to only pitch two guys tonight,” said head coach Butch Thompson.
“I’m just happy to be able to go that long and help the team win tonight,” Vail said. “My goal is to win every pitch and go after each batter, one at a time. As the innings went on, I was just trying to get the guy in front of me and go on from there.”
Auburn’s ace pitcher, Joseph Gonzalez, has not taken the field since the opening series against Indiana because of shoulder tightness. A big question mark hovers over the Tigers' bullpen as a consistent pitching lineup has yet to be formed.
The game continued a trend of the past couple of weeks, with different lineups, pitchers and combinations taking the field for the Tigers as conference play nears.
The Tigers are traveling to Jacksonville, Alabama tomorrow night to take on Jacksonville State in the second game of a five-game week. Game time is set for 6 p.m. CST and the contest will be streamed on ESPN+.
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