For the second consecutive game, Auburn overpowered Wright State sealing the series with an 11-1 run-rule victory in seven innings on Saturday at Plainsman Park.
The Tigers’ offense came alive after a slow start, tallying 13 hits — 12 of them singles — while drawing seven walks. Chase Fralick and Ike Irish led the charge at the plate with three hits each, while Cooper McMurray and Deric Fabian also contributed multiple hits. Auburn’s scoring burst came between the third and sixth innings, where they put up 11 unanswered runs.
“It builds a huge amount of confidence because we know this dude’s coming in the game and he’s about to shove the ball in the zone and get outs and arguably win us a ballgame,” pitcher Jackson Sanders said of the pitchers’ mentality. “Like I said about the hitters, producing so many runs right now is really big to us. Obviously, there’s going to come a game where they don’t score 11 runs. It’s going to be tight, so that gives us confidence that we have the stuff to shut them down.”
Wright State (2-2) briefly held the lead in the top of the third after working a leadoff walk—the only free pass issued by Auburn’s pitching staff. A two-out RBI single brought the runner home, but that would be the only offense the Raiders could muster.
“It’s just one of the many ways we can win, death by a thousand cuts today,” Irish said. “Another day it might be the longball and the extra-base hits that help us win. Today it was just singles and walks. We did our job.”
Auburn (6-1) quickly responded in the bottom half of the inning, taking advantage of an outfield throwing error and adding RBI singles from McMurray and Fabian to jump ahead 3-1. The Tigers extended their lead in the fourth, capitalizing on a defensive miscue and a wild pitch to add two more runs.
The fifth inning proved decisive as Auburn exploded for five more runs. Fabian launched his second home run of the season to start the rally before Fralick added a two-run single to push the lead to 8-1. A wild pitch and a bases-loaded walk capped off the big inning, putting the Tigers firmly in control. Fralick continued his strong day at the plate in the sixth, driving in Chris Rembert with a single for his third RBI of the game and cementing the final score at 11-1.
Meanwhile, Auburn’s pitching staff delivered another standout performance. Starter Alex Petrovic, making his first career start, struck out a personal-best five batters over 2.2 innings. Sanders (1-1) earned his first career win by tossing 2.1 scoreless innings, throwing an impressive 20 of 21 pitches for strikes. Dylan Watts followed with two perfect frames, with the only baserunner coming on an error.
“We threw 72 percent strikes yesterday. That was our watermark. We threw 74 percent strikes today,” head coach Butch Thompson said. “Petrovic stepped in and did a nice job. Sanders had the little flair to start off with and he didn’t blink. I think he threw one ball. Then Dylan Watts was phenomenal today.”
With the series secured, Auburn will look to complete the sweep when the teams face off in the finale on Sunday at 1 p.m. CT.
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Grace is a Sophomore majoring in Speech Language Hearing Sciences. She joined the Plainsman in the spring of 2024.
