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Trying to close the regular season strong and make a push for the NCAA Tournament, Auburn fell flat Tuesday night in a 6-1 loss to Jacksonville State at Plainsman Park.
After Rocky McCord went two perfect innings in his first career start, Daniel Koger gave up five runs on three hits and three walks in an inning-plus. The Tigers' offense didn't muster anything until a solitary run in the eighth.
Perhaps buoyed by his alma mater's appearance over the weekend in the Alabama state baseball finals, Pelham alum Michael Bishop launched a two-out, two-run homer in the third off Koger for the game's first runs. After a walk, Koger got a pickoff to end the inning, but more trouble was brewing for the Tigers in the fourth. After two walks to open his second frame, Koger gave up an RBI double to Paschal Petrongolo and got the hook, responsible for the two runners still on, both of whom scored on Andrew Bishop's two-run double. An RBI groundout scored Bishop before the inning was over, and the Gamecocks led 6-0.
Auburn (31-21, 11-16 SEC) managed to equal JSU in hits with five, but the Tigers couldn't put together any rallies. The bases were left loaded in the sixth when SEC freshman of the week Jordan Ebert struck out swinging against reliever Ben Haynes. They loaded the bases with one out in the eighth, but an Ebert sac fly was all that could be mustered, as Ryan Tella struck out to end the inning.
JSU starter Ben Polk gave up just two hits to his 23 batters faced in 5 2/3 innings and picked up the win. Auburn will host No. 11 Arkansas this weekend in the final regular-season series before next week's SEC Tournament.
Box score, via auburntigers.com
Jacksonville State 6 (30-23) |
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| Player | ab | r | h | rbi | bb | so | po | a | lob | avg |
| Michael Bishop cf | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | .352 |
| Adam Miller 1b | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 0 | .279 |
| Griff Gordon rf | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | .343 |
| Coty Blanchard 2b | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | .309 |
| Paschal Petrongolo dh | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .264 |
| Andrew Bishop ss | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | .184 |
| Chase Silvani lf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .263 |
| Gavin Golsan 3b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | .223 |
| Cal Lambert c | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0 | .173 |
| Adam Polk p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | - |
| Ben Haynes p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - |
| Michael Barber p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - |
| Cody Ponder p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - |
| Travis Stout p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - |
| Totals | 30 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 27 | 6 | 1 | |
Auburn 1 (31-21) |
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| Player | ab | r | h | rbi | bb | so | po | a | lob | avg |
| Hunter Kelley rf | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | .224 |
| Cullen Wacker lf | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .324 |
| Garrett Cooper 1b | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 1 | 2 | .360 |
| Patrick Savage dh | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .287 |
| Dan Glevenyak ss | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 1 | .227 |
| Jordan Ebert 2b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | .297 |
| Ryan Tella cf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 | .271 |
| Damek Tomscha 3b | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | .276 |
| Sam Gillikin pr | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .159 |
| Blake Austin c | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 1 | .290 |
| Rocky McCord p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - |
| Daniel Koger p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | - |
| Trey Cochran-Gill p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - |
| Trey Wingenter p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - |
| Totals | 32 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 27 | 13 | 11 | |
Score by Innings R H E ------------------------------------------- Jacksonville State.. 002 400 000 - 6 5 2 Auburn.............. 000 000 010 - 1 5 0 ------------------------------------------- |
| E - GOLSAN,Gavi(4); LAMBERT,Cal(3). DP - Auburn 1. LOB - JSU 1; Auburn 11. 2B - PETRONGOLO,P(5); BISHOP,Andre(8); Savage, P.(7); Tomscha, D.(12). HR - BISHOP,Micha(4). HBP - Cooper, G. 2; Glevenyak, D. SF - Ebert, J.(3). Reached on CI - Wacker, C.. |
| Jacksonville State | ip | h | r | er | bb | so | wp | bk | hbp | ibb | ab | bf | fo | go | np | era |
| Adam Polk W,4-6 | 5.2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 19 | 23 | 9 | 6 | 97 | 5.07 |
| Ben Haynes | 1.1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 34 | 4.15 |
| Michael Barber | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 6.43 |
| Cody Ponder | 1.1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 16 | 3.41 |
| Travis Stout | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1.52 |
| Auburn | ip | h | r | er | bb | so | wp | bk | hbp | ibb | ab | bf | fo | go | np | era |
| Rocky McCord | 2.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 28 | 3.96 |
| Daniel Koger L,0-3 | 1.0 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 42 | 5.01 |
| Trey Cochran-Gill | 4.0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 14 | 2 | 9 | 49 | 2.55 |
| Trey Wingenter | 2.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 25 | 3.68 |
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Win - POLK,Adam (4-6). Loss - Koger, D. (0-3). Save - None. HBP - by POLK,Adam (Cooper, G.); by BARBER,Micha (Cooper, G.); by BARBER,Micha (Glevenyak, D). CI - LAMBERT,Cal. Inherited runners/scored: HAYNES,Ben 3/0; BARBER,Micha 1/0; PONDER,Cody 3/1; STOUT,Travis 2/0; Cochran-Gill 2/2. Pitches/strikes: POLK,Adam 97/61; HAYNES,Ben 34/24; BARBER,Micha 9/6; PONDER,Cody 16/14; STOUT,Travis 4/3; McCord, R. 28/17; Koger, D. 42/23; Cochran-Gill 49/31; Wingenter, T 25/15.
Umpires - HP: Vic Correll 1B: Danny Everett 3B: Randy Watkins |