Takeaways from Auburn baseball's series-securing win on Friday against Georgia
Auburn notched their ninth come from behind victory of the season to improve to 16-6-1 with a 6-3 victory over Georgia inside a rowdy Plainsman Park. Here's what you need to know about the contest:
The bats came alive
Georgia started junior Jaden Woods, and he looked every bit of the Top 100 MLB Draft prospect he is. Using primarily fastballs, the lefty kept Auburn hitless until the 5th, with the only baserunner for the Tigers coming from a Carter Wright walk in the 3rd (that was promptly erased via double play). He was absolutely in cruise control, with Georgia staking him to an early 2-0 lead.
And then, like something clicked, he wasn't.
Ike Irish led off the 5th inning with a homerun over the Monster in left, his first in an Auburn uniform.
Justin Kirby worked an eight-pitch strikeout, Bobby Pierce barreled a ball into the alley for a double, and Auburn realized that they could make hard contact against Woods, who started having trouble landing his breaking ball for a strike.
"A ton of respect for that young man", said Thompson after the game, about Woods and their struggles to make solid contact against him early. "The more marbles you see, the more at-bats you have, you keep drawing close. We're watching that on our side. I know the second time through the lineup, then the third, you have to be keenly aware of that. [...] Before the home run, we had about four hard contacts in six at-bats, so we thought we were zeroing in. That was the conversation (in the dugout, 'okay, we're getting closer. It's starting to happen.' and then the big inning happened."
Auburn's offense turned on the jets in the 6th, opening with two straight singles, scoring on on an Irish sac fly, and then letting Justin Kirby absolutely DEMOLISH a baseball for three RBIs and a lead that Auburn would never relinquish.
Kirby admitted after the game that he didn't think it was the longest home run he's ever hit, but that came with an important caveat: "This is the first year I've gotten to have a Trackman, so all the other ones (at Kent State) I just had to kind of pick out a landmark near where it landed and use Google Earth."
"Hopefully I can hit another one farther."
John Armstrong vultures another win
The sophomore sidearmer, entering the game in the top of the 6th after Chase Allsup went 2.2 innings in relief of starter Tanner Bauman, got out of the inherited situation (runner on 1st, only one out) on the first pitch, inducing a ground ball for a double play to end the inning.
Auburn went on to produce the big inning and put him in position, yet again, to get the win. It's the team-leading fifth win of the season for Armstrong, a fact that both Thompson and Armstrong believe isn't a coincidence, because of Armstrong's style of pitching.
"He creates participation" explained Thompson. "There's going to be ground balls and people are going to have to catch the ball and play defense."
Armstrong, sitting in with Thompson for media availability at Coach's request because that's what they did on Thursday night after the walkoff victory and "coaches are superstitious", elaborated on the trend.
"I feel like me, creating ground balls and just adding a little something different because I throw kind of...odd adds a little spice and kind of sparks the guys. They're like 'oh, ground balls - I've got to be ready' and then maybe it's more of like a psychological 'I need to lock in here' and then it kind of goes to the bats. [...] I feel like when I come in, creating ground balls, it locks in the guys a little bit more."
But John had to earn it
The box score says "out at home cf to c to p" for the final out of the 7th, so let's explain:
Runners on 1st and 2nd, two outs. Fly ball drops in centerfield in front of Kason Howell, who fires home to try and get the runner. Runner beats the throw...but didn't tag home. Armstrong realizes it, eventually, and races the batter (who is almost in the dugout) to home plate for the final out, which was upheld after Georgia challenges both the ruling that he didn't touch home plate originally and that he didn't beat Armstrong back to the plate.
It's not a great angle, but here's what we have:
After the game, Armstrong gave the credit to Ike Irish, who was positioned on the mound for the cutoff. "I didn't really even know what happened - I just heard Ike screaming 'John, tag him!' and I looked up at Collins, and he looked at me, and I was like 'uh-oh", then we both started scrambling towards home plate. It was a great momentum booster right there."
The pitching did well
Auburn stuck with the "core four" for game two, which Thompson was happy about. "We did exactly what we said we were going to do pitch wise. We thought that was the right match-up. We talked about Bauman getting started, we talked about Allsup, we talked about Armstrong, and we talked about (Chase) Isbell. Those were the four - we were able to stay with Plan A."
He went on to explain that he wasn't bothered by the short outing from Bauman, who went only 2.2 innings with four hits and two earned runs. "In a backhanded way, I like Bauman tonight. [...] He never really had his stuff set, I thought he missed a lot of pitches wide, not in the zone enough. They had four consecutive batters reach in a row and he held it together, and we got him out with (only) two runs. I think that was huge: we were only down two instead of kicking it to the curb and getting crazy big numbers. We avoided the big inning."
What's next?
Auburn goes for the sweep on Saturday at 2PM with freshman lefty Zach Crotchfelt facing off against junior righty Liam Sullivan for the Bulldogs. First pitch is at 2PM, and the game will be available for streaming on SEC Network+. The radio call, with Brad Law and Andy Burcham, is available locally on 93.9FM, online at auburntigers.com, and on the Auburn Athletics app.
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