Road woes continue for No. 13 Auburn in 6-3 loss at No. 20 Florida

No. 13 Auburn baseball dropped its fifth consecutive road game in Thursday’s 6-3 loss to No. 20 Florida. 

The Tigers’ offense was shut down by right-hander Aidan King, which set the tone for the rest of the game. The sophomore went six innings, allowing one run on one hit while striking out eight for the Gators.

Auburn struggled to get the leadoff man aboard in the opening game, allowing Florida to ease into innings. The Tigers were 1-for-9 in leadoff situations, compared to Florida’s 4-for-8.

“I just didn’t think we got off to a great start,” Auburn head coach Butch Thompson said. “They just got the leadoff man on all night in some way, shape, form or fashion. I thought we did a nice job of keeping them to two runs after they hit the three-run homer.”

The visitors set the tone early as back-to-back hits from Chase Fralick and Eric Guevara gave Logan Gregorio a chance to help Auburn strike first. The Northern Illinois transfer delivered with a single through the left side, scoring Fralick to give the Tigers a 1-0 advantage. However, that would be the last sign of life from Thompson’s offense until the fifth inning, as King retired 10 straight batters.

“Every big moment when we got a little something going, we could not have an at-bat. I give King a lot of credit,” Thompson said. “At the end of the day, he took his fastball, his best pitch and threw it through us.”

Florida immediately responded in the home half of the frame as Karson Bowen doubled down the left-field line, scoring Brendan Lawson and evening the score. This marked the first time Auburn right-hander Andreas Alvarez had allowed a run in the first inning since March 17 against Georgia Tech.

The Gators jumped on Alvarez in the third, adding three more runs via Blake Cyr’s three-run home run. The senior from Windermere, Florida, now has five home runs on the season.

Following the rally, Florida kept its foot on the gas as the next two batters reached safely, forcing the Auburn dugout to signal to the bullpen and bring LJ Cormier into the game. This was the shortest outing of Alvarez’s sophomore campaign, as he recorded just seven outs and allowed four runs on six hits.

In the fifth, Florida struck again as Kyle Jones smashed a double into right field, scoring Landon Stripling and Cade Kurland to extend its lead to 6-1.

Auburn didn’t go down without a fight as four hits in the seventh from Eddie Madrigal, Mason McCraine, Chris Rembert and Fralick brought home two runs, cutting its deficit to 6-3. 

Redshirt senior Abe Chancellor turned in an impressive outing, posting a career-high three scoreless frames for the Tigers. 

Auburn wasn’t able to spark any offense in the eighth or ninth as Ernesto Lugo-Canchola and Joshua Whritenour slammed the door. Whritenour earned his seventh save of the season.

Game two in Gainesville is set for 4:30 p.m. CDT Friday on SEC Network.

As of April 14, D1Baseball is projecting Auburn as a No. 14 overall seed, meaning the Tigers could potentially have to hit the road for the Super Regional round. After this series concludes, Thompson’s group will have two more chances in SEC play to fix its road woes.