Auburn baseball gets a HUGE 2-1 series win against Vanderbilt

Preparing for a series against perennial baseball powerhouse Vanderbilt is always a tall task for any coaching staff, a fact Tigers head coach Butch Thompson acknowledged leading up to Friday's Game 1.

"Tip my hat to Vanderbilt, the last five, six, seven years, it's been one of the most difficult teams to prepare for in SEC play. They're just so good in every category. It's arguably the best pitching staff we've seen, top to bottom, with two of the fastest runners in the country."

Thompson likened the running game to preparing for Texas A&M, with catcher Nate LaRue's pitcher-caliber right arm needed behind the plate to contain the running game.

Auburn kicked off the weekend in explosive fashion, with Cole Foster and Brooks Carlson both launching home runs out of Plainsman Park as Auburn won Game 1, 5-1. Hayden Mullins started the game with authority, striking out five of the first eight batters he faced in the 1st and 2nd innings. He ultimately finished with 4.1 innings of one-hit scoreless baseball, with one hit, six walks, and a career-high nine strikeouts. The inefficiency is what kept him from getting the win, though - he faced only four batters over the minimum but threw 93 pitches with only 49 strikes. He was knocked from the game in the fifth after loading the bases on a fielder’s choice and consecutive walks.

With Vanderbilt catcher Dominic Keegan up, batting over .400 on the season, the 1st pitch being a ball was enough to make the call to the pen. Carson Skipper came in and induced an inning-ending double play on the 1st pitch and Auburn escaped the jam with no runs allowed, and Skipper ended up giving Auburn 2.2 innings of one-hit, one-run ball to get his 3rd win of the year. He understood the impact getting out of that jam with no runs could have on a ballclub. “Shoot, it’s a huge confidence boost - not just for me but for everybody on the field.”

Closer Blake Burkhalter came in to cover the final two innings, and the 15 combined strikeouts by the trio represented the most Auburn strikeouts in a single game since May 2018. The win represented head coach Butch Thompson's 200th win in an Auburn uniform. Thompson was aware of the milestone but deflected most of the praise to his team, saying "It's just been special. Every year I've been able to be here has been special. I was a 23-year assistant coach. This hasn't been about me building hundreds of wins. This has been about whatever time that I'm allowed to be a steward of this program. I want to see these boys have success. I think winning a game at home against Vanderbilt on a Friday night, that one win, is bigger than the 200 plateau."

Seven of the nine starting position players for Auburn recorded a hit, a fact that pleased the head coach. "It was just a solid game tonight," Thompson said. "Almost every phase of the game was good. We were led by our pitching staff, and we got a couple of big swings off.

Auburn was optimistic about winning the series on Saturday afternoon behind the arm of Trace Bright. A capacity crowd of 4,096 in Plainsman Park, fresh off of an A-Day scrimmage in adjacent Jordan-Hare Stadium, was on hand to cheer on the junior from Montgomery. Bright, 2-2 with a 2.70 ERA in seven starts this year, has had some bad luck with poor run support this season but was staked to an early 1-0 lead thanks to a Sonny DiChiara solo home run.

Vanderbilt, however, exploded for a nine-run fourth inning that knocked Bright from the game, with many Vanderbilt hitters recognizing that Bright, an efficient pitcher, opens most at-bats with fastballs for strikes and so they focused on getting their hits on early count swings. Thompson felt that the team showed good fight, scoring a run in the 8th. "The score doesn't matter. You have to keep trying to get some guys in there," Thompson said. "It just got tough." Most of the damage came via the middle four of Vandy's lineup - RF Spencer Jones, DH Dominic Keegan, C Jack Bulger, and LF Javier Vaz, as well as their pinch hitters in the 9th - who were collectively 15 for 21 with 3 home runs, 6 doubles, 14 RBIs, 11 runs scored, and three walks in the 19-4 victory.

Game three’s 9-2 Auburn victory was dominated by two Tigers, 1B Sonny DiChiara, and starting pitcher Joseph Gonzalez. DiChaira was 3-5, with two home runs, a double, and 5 RBIs, giving him three home runs on the weekend, 11 on the season, and 52 for his college career. Gonzalez threw a complete game with two runs (only one earned) and eight strikeouts with no walk, the last complete game since Jack Owen threw a complete game against UTSA in March 2019. Gonzalez was successful owing to his sinker, with induced eleven ground ball outs, as well as elevated fastballs and a sweeping slider that led to his eight strikeouts. His pitch count finished at 104, with 81 of them going for strikes. Gonzalez was in the zone early and often, but Vandy’s hitters could not make solid contact. The middle four hitters, who combined for the sensational Game 2 performance, were collectively 3-15 against Gonzalez with five strikeouts.

Auburn now sits at 2nd in the SEC West, 1 game behind Arkansas, who they will face at home for a 3-game series May 6th-8th. Recent D1Baseball.com postseason projections have Auburn as a 2-seed in the Charlottesville regional, where they would face #3 Liberty before taking on the winner of host #1 Virginia and #4 Bucknell. Auburn has six SEC series remaining on the schedule, three against each division, starting with Mississippi State in Starkville this Thursday-Saturday.

Auburn takes on in-state foe Samford at Plainsman Park on Tuesday, April 12th. It’s “Bark in the Park”, sponsored by Auburn Vet Med, with leashed dogs being welcomed into the stadium after completion of a liability waiver. First pitch is scheduled for 6:05 PM.