AUBURN, Ala. - The Auburn Tigers (11-3) fell to the Austin Peay Governors (11-3) 15-6 on Saturday afternoon, evening the series at one apiece.
Nothing went right for the Tigers inside Plainsman Park. A quick three-run homerun from Brody Szako put the Governors up early, and for good. Austin Peay starting pitcher Andrew Devine gave up a quick two runs in the first, but settled into a tremendous outing. The redshirt senior’s finishing line was 7.0 inning pitched with just four hits on five strikeouts.
For Auburn, junior Carson Myers got the start in the Saturday slot, replacing the usual Joseph Gonzalez. Myers would only be able to work three innings, giving up seven hits and four earned runs.
It was even further downhill from there for the Tigers pitching staff. Auburn pitching gave up 16 hits, and issued 9 walks to go along with three batters hit by a pitch.
“I think that’s the worst game I’ve been a part of as head coach,” Auburn head coach Butch Thompson said after the loss. “I’ll take ownership of that. That was a pretty lethargic and pretty, pretty rough outing for our guys.”
The Tigers also had tremendous struggles in the field, something uncharacteristic to past Auburn squads. Before the outing was over, the Tigers had piled up seven errors. Those errors contributed to the seven unearned runs conceded by the pitching staff.
One positive in the field for the Tigers was catcher Ike Irish. The sophomore backstop threw out three baserunners.
The blowout loss did give the Tigers a chance to give some innings to pitchers who haven’t seen a ton of playing time this season.
Junior pitcher Parker Carlson had the best line of the day for the Tigers. Carlson allowed just one baserunner in an inning and a third of work. He also had great command of the strike zone and pitched efficiently to an Austin Peay team that absolutely mashed the ball.
Other than Carlson, other Tiger relievers did not do well in their extended time on the mound.
“That was a bright spot today,” Thompson said regarding Carlson’s outing. “That was the missed opportunity for a few guys today to kind of show us something in that setting.”
From an offensive standpoint, Cooper Weiss continued to hit the ball well for Auburn. The graduate student from Fort Myers, Florida went 2-3 at the plate, adding a homerun and two RBI’s to his line.
“It’s a quick flush,” Thompson said. “We have to get right back out here and try to win a series.”
Auburn will look to bounce back tomorrow in the rubber match against the Governors. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m. CT and can be listened to on the Auburn Sports Network.
