Despite a ninth-inning push, Auburn held strong and put Alabama away to secure a victory in the first game of the series Friday night.
The Auburn Tigers (20-13-1, 5-8 SEC) defeated the Alabama Crimson Tide (24-11, 4-9 SEC) 8-4 and held the team's rival scoreless through eight innings.
“We needed somebody to step up,” said head coach Butch Thompson. “It was his (Tommy Vail) best outing. It was clean, it was efficient, it was great baseball. We needed this one on the road and Tommy absolutely silenced a very good lineup.”
Senior left-hander Vail got the start for Auburn and allowed no runs off of two hits, walked four batters and struck four out in 6.2 innings of work. Junior left-hander Tanner Bauman pitched 1.2 innings and allowed all four Alabama runs off of two hits and three walks. Sophomore right-hander Will Cannon pitched the last 0.2 innings and halted the late Tide rally, only allowing one hit, one walk and striking one batter out.
"It definitely means a lot more that we're playing Alabama and I haven't been here for very long but I know the importance of it and it felt really good to get our team off to a good start this weekend," Vail said. "Early on I couldn't really locate my changeup for a strike but I was able to move the fastball in and out and kind of push-pull until I was able to figure out the off-speed in the strike zone."
Sophomore right-hander Luke Holman got the start for Alabama and allowed four runs on four hits, three walks and struck out six batters in 6.2 innings of work. Sophomore right-hander Hagan Banks pitched for 1.2 innings, allowing four runs off of two hits, walking one batter and striking out two. Sophomore left-hander Connor Ball pitched the last 0.2 innings and allowed one hit and struck one batter out.
Auburn got the scoring started in the second inning when freshman left fielder Chris Stanfield hit a two-run homer. Those were the only runs scored during the first six innings of the game.
The Tigers added on two more in the seventh inning when junior second baseman Caden Green hit a single that drove in two more and extended the lead to 4-0. Sophomore first baseman Cooper McMurray singled in the eighth inning to add another run.
The ninth inning saw the most action as Green reached on an error which allowed Stanfield to score, and junior shortstop Cole Foster hit a two-run homer to put Auburn ahead 8-0.
“Throughout the night my at-bats got better and I happened to hit a hanging changeup and did what I could with it,” Foster said.
Alabama made some noise in the bottom of the ninth inning by scoring four runs, three of which were forced in by walks or batters being hit by pitches. Senior shortstop Jim Jarvis hit a single to left field that scored another run for the Tide.
First pitch for the second game of the series is set for tomorrow at 6 p.m. CST. The game will be broadcast on SEC Network+.
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Daniel Locke, junior in journalism, is the community editor for The Auburn Plainsman.
Twitter: @danieljlocke
