Auburn Daily

No. 5 Auburn Opens Season in Sweeping Fashion

The Auburn Tigers baseball team is ranked No. 5 in the country, and they opened the season with a sweep of Youngstown State.
Auburn Tigers on SI Staff|
Jake Marciano struck out 12 batters in 5 innings to kick off the weekend.
Jake Marciano struck out 12 batters in 5 innings to kick off the weekend. | David Gray/Auburn Tigers

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Auburn Tigers

AUBURN, Ala. – No. 5 Auburn won a hard-fought game one, 2-1, in 10 innings before cruising to a 17-2 run-rule win in game two, completing the season-opening sweep of Youngstown State Saturday at Plainsman Park.

The weekend’s starting rotation of Jake Marciano, Jackson Sanders, and Alex Petrovic combined to strike out 29 batters with one walk in 16.0 innings. All three set career highs in strikeouts in their outings.

“I was tickled to death, three really good starts,” head coach Butch Thompson said. “There was a lot of execution. I thought the defense played well, too. I really saw the three guys we committed to start have a commitment of really trying to force in the strike zone.”

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In the three games, Auburn pitchers allowed four runs on 11 hits with 43 strikeouts and six walks. The 43 strikeouts were the most in a three-game series under Thompson.

Offensively, Chase Fralick and Eric Guevara led the way with six hits apiece on the weekend, including a combined nine in the doubleheader.

“I think you have to throw Chase Fralick in there, too,” Thompson added. “He called good games, he ran good games and really set a good tempo for two of the three starters to get going, and he found some really good offense for us, too, to get us getting going early in game three.”

“I was just seeing the ball pretty good,” Guevara said. “I was staying on the fastball for the most part, reading the offspeed, and staying to the other side of the field. I was just sticking to my approach, and it worked out pretty good.”

GAME ONE

Trailing 1-0 with the bases loaded and nobody out in the bottom of the ninth, Auburn (2-0) tied the game on a sacrifice fly from Bristol Carter, scoring Cade Belyeu from third. The Tigers reloaded the bases with one out, but Youngstown State (0-2) escaped the jam to send the game to extra innings.

The Penguins put the first to batter in the 10th aboard, but Ryan Hetzler entered in relief of Jett Johnston and struck out the side to keep the score tied. Johnston turned in a career-high 3.0 scoreless innings with three strikeouts.

The Tigers again loaded the bases with nobody out in the 10th thanks to a single from Eric Guevara, Youngstown State error and intentional walk. The Penguins recorded the first out of the inning at the plate, but a 2-2 wild pitch to Lucas Steele scored Chase Fralick from third to end the game.

Making his first career start, Sanders struck out a pair in a scoreless first inning and faced the minimum through four innings. However, Youngstown State took advantage of a leadoff walk in the fifth and started the scoring with a one-out double to right center.

The sophomore came back out for the sixth and worked a clean inning with two strikeouts, ending his outing with a career-high eight strikeouts in 6.0 innings.

Johnston entered in relief of Sanders to start the seventh and turned in a career-high 3.0 scoreless innings to allow Auburn to tie the game with the previously mentioned run in the ninth, setting the stage for the dramatics in the 10th.

GAME TWO

After scoring two runs in each of the first two games, Auburn wasted no time in getting on the board as Fralick launched a two-run home run with one out in the first. The ball let Fralick’s bat at 106 miles per hour and traveled 419 feet over the visitor’s bullpen in right field.

With Petrovic holding Youngstown State at bay on the mound, the offense went back to work in the second, scoring three runs on four hits to extend the lead to 5-0. Bristol Carter battled with two strikes and sent a single back up the middle to score Mason McCraine, and Bub Terrell followed three batters later with a two-RBI single to right.

The Tigers added a run in the fourth on a sacrifice fly from Belyeu and tallied eight more fifth to make it a 14-0 game. The inning was highlighted by the first career RBI singles from the McCraine brothers, Brandon and Mason, in back-to-back at-bats. Carter drove in a pair on a single, and Ryen Farber capped off the inning with his second hit of the game.

Making just his second career weekend start, Petrovic struck out multiple batters in four straight innings from the second through the fifth and ultimately registered a career-high nine strikeouts in 5.0 scoreless innings.

The offense went back to work with three more runs in the sixth, extending the lead to 17-0. Terrell started the inning with a no-doubt home run to nearly the same spot as Fralick earlier in the game, and the McCraine brothers again delivered back-to-back RBI singles.

LJ Cormier, Ethan Harden and Connor Gatwood each made their Auburn debuts on the mound with Cormier and Gatwood registering their first career strikeouts.

Auburn hosts Cincinnati for a midweek matchup Tuesday at 6 p.m. CT before traveling to Arlington, Texas, for the College Baseball Series next Friday-Sunday.  

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Auburn Tigers on SI Staff
AUBURN TIGERS ON SI STAFF