No. 11 Auburn reigned as the superior Tiger in Friday’s series opener against No. 3 LSU with a 8-4 win behind six shutout innings from starting pitcher Samuel Dutton.
In this battle between SEC heavyweights, it didn’t take long for the first runs to get on the board.
"I thought (Chase) Fralick’s hit was huge, and Ike’s (Irish) big swing was gigantic in this ballgame,” head coach Butch Thompson said. “Sam (Dutton) did a nice job. Everybody was flying around. Our freshmen went 7-for-11 in this ballgame. They just continue to play. It’s a great team win. You get a guy that you believe like Dutton getting to his stuff, and you can pull it off.”
With two strikes and two outs, the first runs of the game came in the second inning from the bat of Chase Fralick off a line-drive double over the left fielder’s head. Freshman phenom Bub Terrell moved to third after his single from a ground ball through the infield gap hit by Eric Guevara to give Auburn a runner in scoring position, leaving Fralick to take care of the rest.
“It feels great to get the first one,” Fralick said of the win. “We’re that much closer to a series win, but we have to come out tomorrow and keep the foot on the gas.”
In the fifth inning, the Auburn bats caught fire. Following three straight singles, one of which was the result of an error, Ike Irish with a full count, hammered the ball to deep center field coming about a foot short of hitting a grand slam. The bases-clearing triple from Irish gave Auburn a commanding 5-0 lead, with first baseman Cooper McMurray scoring Irish the following at bat with a single to left field to extend the Tigers’ lead to six.
A double from Terrell succeeding McMurray’s RBI gave Auburn two runners in scoring position with only one out, yet Auburn left those runners stranded ending the four-run fifth inning.
LSU was able to finally get runners in scoring position in the seventh, scoring three runs off a fielder’s choice infield dribbler from Derek Curiel and a two-run double from Jared Jones.
After an RBI single from Chris Rembert in the sixth and an insurance run scored off a single from Guevara in the bottom of the seventh, the Auburn Tigers cruised to a 13-hit, 8-4 victory over the No. 3 team in college baseball.
A late rally in the ninth inning with an RBI double from Curiel was too little too late for LSU, as Auburn closer Carson Myers struck out the next batter to seal the victory.
Dutton was a force to be reckoned with for Auburn; throwing 6.0 scoreless innings with seven strikeouts and only three hits on the evening. Despite a rain shower in the top of the 5th inning, Dutton remained calm on the mound and continued to command his pitches despite the precipitation. Earning the win, Dutton threw his second straight shutout performance and broke LSU’s nine game win streak.
“It felt awesome. It was a great experience,” Dutton said of his outing. “I tried to keep the main thing the main thing, execute the plan and just really attack the hitters. It was just business as usual.”
Auburn and LSU are set to face off in the second game of the series tomorrow evening at 6 p.m. CST inside of Plainsman Park.
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Charlie is a sophomore from Mendham, New Jersey. He is majoring in journalism and started with The Plainsman in spring 2024.
