Auburn came back to win, 7-4, after trailing Wofford early Wednesday night at Plainsman Park, picking up a bit of a confidence boost before this weekend's series against Texas A&M at College Station.
The game began under ominous clouds and wind, but was played through without any stoppage and only a steady drizzle falling at times. Wofford, coming off a 6-1 loss Tuesday night at Winthrop, gave righty Matthew Milburn, normally a reliever, his first career start. Auburn (17-12, 1-8 SEC) also went with a fairly inexperienced starter, as Trey Wingenter followed up last week's start at Troy by getting the ball first against the Terriers.
Wofford (13-18, 4-8 SoCon) came into the game ranked ninth in the nation in sacrifice bunts with 37, and also had 96 stolen bases on the year. The Terriers opened the game immediately gunning for runs the dead ball way, with Matthew Kaskow's leadoff single followed by a sacrifice bunt and an RBI single from Seth Neely, giving the visitors a 1-0 lead after one.
In the second, the Terriers used aggressive baserunning to throw off the already shaky Auburn defense and push the lead to 3-0. The first of two stolen bases was topped off by a rare bad throw from Blake Austin that got past third and scored Clark Wise. Matthew Pelt came around later in the second after walking, stealing second and scoring on a Kaskow single.
Auburn struck back right away in the bottom of the second, when Damek Tomscha extending his hitting streak to eight games with a leadoff double. He scored on a skied throw to third after a grounder by Jackson Burgreen went back to the pitcher. Dan Glevenyak brought Burgreen home with a single that made it 3-2 before Milburn was pulled for Dominick Del Monte.
Sam Gillikin drove in Tomscha to tie the game for Auburn twice, once in the fourth on a sac fly, and again in the fifth with an RBI single. However, Auburn ended the fifth with the bases loaded, bringing back painful memories of runners left on base and losses not too long gone.
The sixth wiped those worries away, as the Tigers sprang to life with four hits, a walk, an error and a stolen base, putting them on the board three times, and in front for good, 7-4.
Gillikin led off with a single and scored on an error made at third on a ball hit by Glevenyak. Yak would come around and score on a Tella single, before Tella stole second and completed the scoring on a Tomscha base hit.
While Auburn was fighting back at the plate, Justin Camp had relieved Wingenter in the third, and for the most part, he pitched very well. Camp picked up the win, moving to 3-0 by going five innings and allowing just one unearned run. He gave up four hits and struck out three. Reid Carter earned his first save for Auburn, throwing two hitless innings with three strikeouts and a walk.
Auburn will look to win its first SEC series of the season at Texas A&M (19-11, 5-4 SEC) beginning Friday night at 6:30 pm. Wofford, in case you're bored and in Birmingham, visits Samford this weekend.
Box score, via auburntigers.com
Wofford 4 (13-18) |
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Player | ab | r | h | rbi | bb | so | po | a | lob | avg |
Matthew Kaskow cf | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | .188 |
Alec Paradowski ss | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | .287 |
Josh Hyman rf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .403 |
Seth Neely 3b | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .328 |
James Plaisted 1b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 1 | .343 |
Clark Wise lf | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | .286 |
Luke Feisal c | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 2 | .231 |
Matthew Pelt dh | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .194 |
Matt Moore 2b | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | .212 |
Matthew Milburn p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - |
Dominick Del Monte p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - |
DooJoon Park p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | - |
Luke Leftwich p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | - |
JD Osborne p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - |
Totals | 31 | 4 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 8 | 24 | 8 | 5 | |
Auburn 7 (17-12) |
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Player | ab | r | h | rbi | bb | so | po | a | lob | avg |
Ryan Tella cf | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | .284 |
Jordan Ebert 2b | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 0 | .309 |
Tanner Cimo 2b | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .100 |
Cullen Wacker dh | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .287 |
Garrett Cooper 1b | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 0 | 1 | .333 |
Damek Tomscha 3b | 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .289 |
Jackson Burgreen lf | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | .236 |
Hunter Kelley ph/lf | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .214 |
Blake Austin c | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 2 | 6 | .294 |
Sam Gillikin rf | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | .200 |
Dan Glevenyak ss | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 1 | .232 |
Trey Wingenter p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | - |
Justin Camp p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | - |
Reid Carter p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - |
Totals | 36 | 7 | 14 | 5 | 2 | 7 | 27 | 13 | 12 |
Score by Innings R H E ------------------------------------------- Wofford............. 120 010 000 - 4 8 3 Auburn.............. 020 113 00X - 7 14 1 ------------------------------------------- |
E - Neely 2(4); Milburn(1); Austin, B.(2). DP - Auburn 1. LOB - Wofford 5; Auburn 12. 2B - Paradowski(7); Wacker, C.(8); Tomscha, D.(9); Austin, B.(6). HBP - Kaskow; Cooper, G.; Tomscha, D.. SH - Paradowski(11); Plaisted(1); Ebert, J.(1); Gillikin, S.(2). SF - Gillikin, S.(2). SB - Wise(11); Pelt(7); Tella, R.(5). CS - Pelt(3). |
Wofford | ip | h | r | er | bb | so | wp | bk | hbp | ibb | b>ab | bf | fo | go | np | era |
Matthew Milburn | 1.2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 9 | 2 | 3 | 24 | 3.54 |
Dominick Del Monte L,1-3 | 3.1 | 8 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 17 | 19 | 6 | 2 | 61 | 9.14 |
DooJoon Park | 1.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 20 | 6.14 |
Luke Leftwich | 1.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 19 | 7.86 |
JD Osborne | 1.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 26 | 2.66 |
Auburn | ip | h | r | er | bb | so | wp | bk | hbp | ibb | ab | bf | fo | go | np | era |
Trey Wingenter | 2.0 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 11 | 1 | 3 | 44 | 4.63 |
Justin Camp W,3-0 | 5.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 16 | 18 | 3 | 7 | 63 | 2.38 |
Reid Carter S,1 | 2.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 32 | 3.55 |
Win - Camp, J. (3-0). Loss - Del Monte (1-3). Save - Carter, R. (1). WP - Osborne(5). HBP - by Del Monte (Cooper, G.); by Camp, J. (Kaskow); by Osborne (Tomscha, D.). Inherited runners/scored: Del Monte 1/0; Park 1/1. Pitches/strikes: Milburn 24/20; Del Monte 61/42; Park 20/14; Leftwich 19/12; Osborne 26/14; Wingenter, T 44/28; Camp, J. 63/43; Carter, R. 32/17.
Umpires - HP: Ken Couch 1B: Craig Mirr 3B: Tony Thompson |