Auburn Defeats Sacramento State 10-5 in Butch Thompson's Debut

The weather could not have been more perfect, and neither could the outcome of the contest in Butch Thompson's debut as the Auburn Tigers head coach.

Auburn rode the hot bats of Anfernee Grier and newcomer Niko Buentello to the 10-5 victory over the visiting Hornets from California. Grier finished with 3 hits and 2 RBIs. He had a monster home run that cleared the Little Monster in left field. Buentello added 2 hits and 3 RBIs to account for half of the Tigers' runs scored.

Cole Lipscomb started for the Tigers. He allowed four hits and three runs, with only one of them earned. There in lies the one negative in today's game: the errors. The Tigers had seven of them, which kept the Hornets in the game more so than they should have been. Two other pitchers took the mound for Auburn, Ben Braymer and true freshman Casey Mize. Mize closed out the final two innings, allowing two hits and one run.

Game 2 is a 1pm pitch, tomorrow. Justin Camp will be on the mound for the Tigers in his first start since 2014. The 2016 baseball season is underway, and after the cloud of the off-season featuring Sunny Golloway's firing, it couldn't have started better.

War Eagle!