MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Ike Irish stayed hot at the plate to help No. 11 Auburn baseball take down the University of South Alabama 13-5 in a capital city showdown.
“Up and down the lineup we linked up a bit more,” head coach Butch Thompson said. “We took the free passes that they gave us and Ike had two more home runs much like Saturday. I’m thankful for this win. We just have to keep working to try to grow the ballclub.”
Following his seven-hit weekend in Lexington, KY, Irish was once again the player of the game for the Tigers going 4-5 with two HRs and five RBIs.
“Since last Saturday all I’ve been thinking about in the box is getting my foot down,” Irish said. “If my timing is right, I trust my hands and my eyes. I just took my hands to the ball. I think that’s what I’ve been doing the past few at-bats, is I’ve been on time and taken my hands to the ball. When I do that I think I can be pretty special.”
In the opening inning, South Alabama’s leadoff man Brennan Holt reached base via an error by third baseman Eric Snow. Kyle Morrison made Auburn pay as he crushed a two-run home run to put the Jaguars ahead 2-0 early.
Snow quickly made up for his fielding blunder with a leadoff single in the home half of the first. Irish followed with a no-doubt two-run blast to level the score at two. Cooper McMurray went back-to-back with Irish, hitting his sixth home run of the year to give Auburn the 3-2 lead. This set the tone for Auburn’s offense for the remainder of the game.
“If you start hitting in the first inning it gets the guys in the dugout involved in the game and then that energy spreads to the guys in the field,” Irish said.
The Tigers kept their foot on the gas early in Montgomery, posting a five-run second inning led by Cade Belyeu’s two-run bomb. Jett Johnston took the mound for Auburn in the third with an 8-2 lead.
“Our offense has been good for us all year,” Belyeu said. “Just going out there, we don’t ever get down regardless if we’re down on the scoreboard or we’re up by 20. We’re going to put together at-bats day-in-and-day-out.”
Head coach Thompson went with the old-fashioned bullpen game today. Auburn used eight pitchers and only allowed three hits in tonight's ballgame. The staff was led by Johnston and John Armstrong who threw four combined innings while striking out five.
The Jaguars were not going to go away without a fight. Three walks surrendered by Auburn reliever Saxon Roberts and a clutch two-out single from Ty Brooks helped South Alabama trim the Tigers lead to 9-5 in the sixth.
Auburn responded in the bottom of the sixth with some insurance runs via singles from Lucas Steele, Chris Rembert, and Chase Fralick extending their lead to 11-5.
In the seventh, Riverwalk Stadium’s scoreboard lit up again as Irish blasted his second home run of the night, a 398-foot shot.
The bullpen was able to cruise through the eighth and ninth innings to help Auburn improve to 20-5 on the season.
The orange and blue will wrap up their road trip this weekend in Athens, GA to take on No. 3 Georgia. If Auburn is able to steal the series in Athens, GA they could potentially return to the Plains as a top five team in college baseball. Game one of the series is set for Friday, March 28 at 5 p.m. CST.
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Rory is a freshman majoring in journalism sports production. He started with The Plainsman in the spring of 2025.
You can follow him on X (Twitter) at @RorymGarvin
