|
Auburn Topped By Southern Miss, 5-4
AUBURN, Ala. - The
Auburn baseball team couldn't find the big hit on Sunday afternoon,
stranding 14 runners on base as it fell to Southern Miss, 5-4, in the
final game of the Auburn Baseball Tournament. The loss dropped Auburn's
record to 7-6 while Southern Miss improved to 8-4.
"At some
point we have to come through with a big pitch or a big base hit and we
haven't been able to do that yet," Auburn Head Coach John Pawlowski
said. "Southern Miss fought back and put some pressure on us early.
It's a tough weekend. We lost two-out-of-three at home, which is
disappointing."
Auburn was a victim of its own success at
points, loading the bases in the second, fifth and eighth innings but
failing to push a run across in any of those situations.
The
loss spoiled another solid start from Daniel Koger, who worked into the
sixth inning before turning things over to the bullpen. In 5 1/3
innings he allowed three runs on five hits and four walks, striking out
three.
The two teams traded second-inning runs on a Blake Brown
solo home run in the top half and a Zach Alvord RBI single in the
bottom half.
Southern Miss then built a 3-1 lead on a Brown
bases-loaded walk in the third and an Ashley Graeter sac fly in the
fifth. Auburn would answer in the bottom of the sixth when Jay Gonzalez
doubled in Dan Glevenyak and then scored on a throwing error to tie it
at 3-3.
Southern Miss broke the tie with three straight doubles
off of Slade Smith, Cory Luckie and Justin Bryant in the eighth to go
up 5-3.
Cullen Wacker's ninth-inning home run to lead off the
inning got Auburn to within a run and the team would put the tying run
into scoring position with one out but failed to bring it home.
Ryan Tella finished the day 2-for-5 and was the only Auburn hitter with multiple hits on the day.
Smith (0-3) was saddled with the loss, allowing the one run in two innings of work.
James
McMahon (1-0) earned the win out of the bullpen with 1 1/3 innings of
shutout relief while Bradley Roney got the final three outs of the game
to pick up his first save of the season.
Earlier in the day,
Purdue (8-1) picked up a 5-2 win over Charleston Southern to finish the
weekend a perfect 3-0. Charleston Southern (4-7) was winless on the
weekend.
Auburn returns to the diamond on Tuesday at Riverwalk
Stadium in Montgomery for the fourth annual Capital City Classic
against rival Alabama. Auburn is undefeated in the non-conference game.
|
