Auburn baseball remains undefeated after dominating Alabama A&M on Tuesday. The game ended after seven innings with an 18-2 Auburn victory. “I would call that my first experience with masked miscommunication,” said head coach Butch Thompson. “I think it was communication because we’re distanced so much. For myself, it’s a learning situation to make sure we’re clear before we break that meeting. So nobody did anything wrong in my opinion. I thought everybody handled it well in an awkward situation.”
The first inning held more action than the whole game. Auburn picked up 10 runs with two being home runs. Auburn left the first winning with nine RBIs, seven hits and one error. Senior Judd Ward started batting for the Tigers and hit a homer to right field on the second pitch of the game. Two bats later sophomore Bryson Ware hit it over the fence at left-center. Ware’s hit also pulled in a runner to give the Tigers their first three runs.
The Tigers saw another home run later in the game during the fifth inning. Auburn was up 16-2 when it changed the batting lineup. This gave sophomore Brayton Brown the opportunity to send it over the fence adding another run midgame. The Tigers rotated through 16 batters in the first inning alone. Junior Brody Moore was able to pick up a pair of hits for the Tigers at bat fifth and fourteenth. Moore’s second hit pulled in another run to give Auburn its first double-digit score.
Freshman Cam Hill stepped up for his first at-bat for the Tigers and grounded to right field. Hill’s hit pulled in another runner.
Auburn’s pitching shined over the first four innings with sophomore Trace Bright on the mound. Innings two, three and four resulted in three up, three down for the Bulldogs. Bright put down seven strikeouts total.
The pitching continued to give Auburn its steady lead with two pitching changes. The top of the fifth gave redshirt junior Peyton Glavine his season debut with one strikeout. Freshman Carson Swelling took the mound at the top of the seventh. Swellings put down two more strikeouts to end Auburn with 10 total.
“The pitching was great,” Thompson said. “I thought once we got to the pen past [Bright], Glavine had his stuff set. His changeup was ready to go and I thought he threw a couple nice innings. Swilling seems to be getting better every time he gets an opportunity and takes the mound so that’s exciting. He really held velocity from the stretch tonight and kept pouring in the strike zone.”
The action slowed over for Auburn with gaining runs every other inning. The Tigers gained eight runs over six innings compared to its 10 in the first. Those runs consisted of seven RBIs and Brown’s homer.
“The mindset has to be the same when we came in today,” said redshirt sophomore Josh Hall. “Baseball is a crazy game. You win by 16 runs today and you go out and it can be a nail-biter in the ninth inning. Just go in with a lot of confidence, believe in ourselves, knowing that this is who we are as a team. This is who we are as a team. Just going in believing we can win.”
Auburn will play Alabama A&M again Wednesday at 4 p.m. CST for its final game of the series.
*Article was first published with The Auburn Plainsman
*Photos belong to Auburn Athletics