AUBURN, Ala. - The Auburn Tigers (18-12, 2-9) fell victim to one of the hottest hitting teams in college baseball Saturday afternoon, falling to the Tennessee Volunteers (25-6, 6-5) 12-2 in a seven-inning run rule.
The bats of Tennessee were raking up and down the lineup, with nine of their 12 hits going for extra bases, and six of those for home runs. Sophomores Dylan Dreiling and Dalton Bargo both left the yard twice, and Juniors Christian Moore and Blake Burke added bombs of their own.
Junior Conner McBride worked through a solid first inning, but the solo shot from Bargo and the grand slam from Moore chased the Tiger starter from the game before he could get through two innings.
“It’s really what happens after the home run,” Auburn head coach Butch Thompson said. “We had a couple of walks, and when the seven hole walks and then the nine hole walks, there you go. If you want to play that game and flip the lineup and keep getting Moore and Burke to the plate, you can pay for that, and that definitely happened.”
Not to be overshadowed by the Volunteer offense, Tennessee starter Drew Beam had a stellar outing. He went the distance for his second complete game of the season, with the previous coming against the Alabama Crimson Tide in eight innings. The junior right hander held the Tigers to just three hits. He struck out eight and walked just one batter. Over 65% of his offerings were for strikes as he picked up his fourth win of the season.
“I probably have to give credit to Beam until the dust settles tomorrow,” Thompson said regarding the team’s lackluster offensive performance. “Hopefully we get set right back into our approach because the approaches have been good, but he was incredible today. So I think for today as the sun’s going down, I’ll give Beam all the credit.”
The Tigers will look to flush this one quickly, as they still have a chance to claim their first SEC series win of the season on Sunday. A win would move the Tigers to 3-9 in conference after playing an incredibly difficult stretch of teams to open their league schedule.
“I was just telling them that this is like a super regional that we’ll be playing tomorrow,” Thompson said. “Tomorrow is a chance to win a super regional, because it’s a super regional type club. Being engaged, making these adjustments…that needs to be the goal of tomorrow to try to win a game.”
The rubber match between the Volunteers and the Tigers is set for a 1 p.m. CT first pitch on Sunday afternoon. The action can be streamed live on SECN+ or listened to on the Auburn Sports Network.
