The No. 6 Auburn Tigers baseball team ended its non-conference schedule with a bang Tuesday night, dominating the UAB Blazers 17-2 in a seven-inning run-rule victory.
“I thought we were invested in almost every sequence,” head coach Butch Thompson said. “It wasn't just one person. We can sit here and talk about three, four guys with good nights. For us to just play good baseball, it has to be all of us. We need contribution from the top, middle and the bottom. As a unit, that was the story of the night, how we played offense, not individual hitters, per se, but just how we played offense as a group and together up and down the lineup.”
This incredible offensive performance now puts the Tigers' winning streak at seven games as they head into SEC play this weekend in a series against the Missouri Tigers.
Auburn’s 17 runs scored in the game are tied for the most the team has scored this season, marking the Tigers' third run-rule victory in their last seven matchups. After a slow start to the season, Auburn’s offense has seen a quick turnaround, having produced six or more runs in nine out of its last 10 games.
Auburn got off to a quick start in the bottom of the first, batting around the entire lineup and driving in four runs in the inning. The team put up two runs before recording its first out thanks to a run-scoring fielder's choice by catcher Chase Fralick and an RBI single from third baseman Eric Guevara, who tallied four hits on the evening. The McCraine brothers, Brandon and Mason, then drove in two runs of their own on a double and a groundout, respectively.
Fralick tacked on two more runs for the Tigers in the following inning. The sophomore from Peachtree City, Georgia, cranked a two-run home run to right field to put Auburn up 6-2.
The game was truly put out of reach in the third inning, however, as Auburn scored five runs on five hits, nearly batting around again. After a bases-clearing two-run double from second baseman Chris Rembert, one of his three hits on the night, Guevara and left fielder Bub Terrell hit back-to-back home runs to put the Tigers up 11-2. Guevara’s was a two-run blast to center field, and Terrell’s was a moonshot hit a mile into the sky in right field.
First baseman Ethin Bingaman padded the Tigers' lead to 12-2 in the fourth inning, driving in Mason McCraine on a double to left-center field, one of Bingaman’s four times reaching base on Tuesday.
Auburn recorded another five-run inning in the fifth to blow the game wide open thanks to a sacrifice fly from Mason McCraine and a grand slam from senior designated hitter Lucas Steele, extending the Tigers' lead to 15 runs.
On the pitching side, starter Andres Alvarez put together arguably his best performance of the season so far. The sophomore from Seminole, Florida, threw five innings, allowing only two hits and two runs (both unearned) while striking out four Blazer batters.
Freshman LJ Cormier struck out the side in the top of the sixth before handing the ball off to redshirt freshman Connor Gatwood in the top of the seventh to throw a scoreless inning, securing the Tigers' run-rule victory.
As non-conference play comes to an end, Auburn currently holds a 14-2 record and top-10 rankings across nearly every publication, but the Tigers' schedule only grows tougher from here on out.
Auburn will take on Missouri starting Friday night. First pitch in Columbia, Missouri, is set for 6 p.m. CST.
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Jonathan is a freshman majoring in industrial and systems engineering. He started with The Plainsman in the fall of 2025.
