Auburn Daily

No. 13 Vanderbilt Levels Series with No. 23 Auburn after 8-6 Win

The No. 23 Auburn Tigers dropped game two of a three-game series with No. 13 Vanderbilt on Saturday afternoon.

Auburn Daily Staff

Lucas Steele went 3-4 in Auburn's loss to Vanderbilt on Saturday afternoon.
Lucas Steele went 3-4 in Auburn's loss to Vanderbilt on Saturday afternoon. / David Gray/Auburn Tigers

AUBURN, Ala. – No. 23 Auburn dropped the middle game against No. 13 Vanderbilt 8-6 to even the series Saturday afternoon at Plainsman Park.

BOX SCORE: Auburn 6, Vanderbilt 8

Vanderbilt (15-4, 1-1 SEC) used a five-run fifth inning to claim the lead, but Auburn (15-4, 1-1 SEC) held the Commodores hitless in the last four innings to give themselves a chance.

The Tigers put the tying run in scoring position in the seventh and brought it to the plate again in the ninth but were left looking for the big hit.

“We couldn’t get out of that fifth inning. It was close, but that was the difference in the ballgame,” head coach Butch Thompson said. “We steadied ourselves, though. What was positive were (Hayden) Murphy and (Dylan) Watts. We made some real adjustments with those guys and we could see it today. It was very successful for those guys.”

Murphy and Watts combined to turn in 3.0 scoreless innings with four strikeouts. Jackson Sanders also turned in a scoreless eighth inning to help account for the final four frames.

Auburn starter Cade Fisher struck out the side on the 11 pitches in the first inning, and the Tigers started the scoring in the bottom of the frame. Cooper McMurray singled to center and moved around the bases on a walk by Deric Fabian and hit-by-pitch by Cade Belyeu. He then came in to score on a sacrifice fly to left center from Chase Fralick.

The Tigers added to their lead after Bub Terrell drew a leadoff walk in the second and Lucas Steele followed with a home run to left field on the second pitch he saw. The long ball was Steele’s first of the season.

Fisher retired seven of the first eight batters he faced, but Vanderbilt answered with back-to-back walks followed by back-to-back doubles to even the score, 3-3, with one out in the third.

Auburn reclaimed the lead with a run on a bloop single to left field from Steele, marking his season-high third RBI of the game. Fralick hit a one-out single to right field and later came around to score on Steele’s second hit.

After Cam Tilly held Vanderbilt scoreless in his first 1.2 innings of work, the Commodores struck for five runs on five hits, a walk and an error to take an 8-4 lead through the top of the fifth.

The Tigers answered with a run on a sacrifice fly from Terrell in the fifth. Fralick scored his second run after hitting a one-out double earlier in the inning.

Steele delivered his third hit and fourth RBI of the game with a two-out double to left field to make it a two-run game in the seventh, but a well-hit flyball to right field ended the inning with the potential tying run in scoring position.

With the previously mentioned trio of Murphy, Sanders and Watts holding Vanderbilt in check on the mound, the Tigers had one last chance to extend the game in the ninth. Chris Rembert hit a ground-rule double down the right field line to bring the tying run to the plate, but a groundout to the catcher ended the game. 

“We did some good things today, but it wasn’t quite as clean as last night and not quite clean enough to get it done,” Thompson added. “I told them to keep believing that we are going to be able to reel somebody back in at home the way we kept it close.”

The three freshmen in the lineup in Fralick, Rembert and Terrell reached base eight times in the game. Fralick, Rembert and Steele each collected multiple hits and accounted for seven of the team’s nine in the game. 

The series finale between Auburn and Vanderbilt is scheduled for Sunday at 2 p.m. CT.

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Auburn Daily Staff
AUBURN DAILY STAFF