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No. 25 Auburn finished off a sweep of the Amegy Bank College Baseball Series presented by Kubota with a 7-4 win against Baylor Sunday evening at Globe Life Field.
The win was Auburn’s 10th straight, marking the team’s longest winning streak since winning 15 in a row at the beginning of the 2019 season. It also marked just the third time in the last 14 seasons the Tigers have swept three games against power conference opponents away from home.
“This weekend was a growing experience. We’ll learn a ton from it,” head coach Butch Thompson said. “I think we’re playing tough, and we have to do that. I think that has to be coached, and that has to be part of the deal. In this game, baseball, it’s played with your mind. I just feel like game three late after you’ve played a bunch of innings, you have to be able to use your mind. Looking back, I’m excited for our players to play good and to win, but I have to find a way for us to learn a few things.”
Making his third straight start to begin his Auburn career, Christian Chatterton (1-0) earned his first career win and struck out a season-high nine batters, tied with fellow freshman Andreas Alvarez for the most strikeouts by an Auburn freshman since 2014.
The freshman gave up a leadoff home run on the second pitch of the game but ultimately turned in 5.0 strong innings while allowing just one more hit the rest of his outing.
“Yeah, obviously that’s not the way I wanted to start the game, but Coach (Foxhall) always talks about going into the game with a gameplan, and if that first gameplan doesn’t work you have to go to plan B,” Chatterton said. “That’s kind of what I had to do. Again, it’s not the ideal way to start the game, but we made other stuff work.”
Offensively, Chase Fralick led the way with three hits and two RBI, marking his fifth multi-hit game and fourth multi-RBI game of the season. He was one of three Auburn players with multiple hits in the game.
“Everything Gabe (Gross) has preached is consistency and attacking everything that we do,” Fralick said. “That’s what we go out there and do every single day. We do our best to keep the same routine and execute the gameplan. When he gives us a gameplan, it’s usually pretty spot on. When we can follow his lead, good things usually work out.”
Baylor (8-3) jumped out to a 1-0 lead with the aforementioned solo home run on the second pitch of the game. However, Chatterton responded by striking out three of the next four batters he faced with a pair of them looking.
Much like in the early stages Saturday, Auburn (11-1) answered and took the lead with two runs in the top of the second. Fralick hit a two-out single back up the middle to score Cooper McMurray, and Bristol Carter followed with a two-out hit of his own to drive in Bub Terrell and take the lead.
The offense continued to remain consistent with two more runs in the top of the third. Cade Belyeu drew a leadoff walk and came around to score on a RBI single from Deric Fabian. After another walk to Terrell loaded the bases, Chris Rembert was hit by a pitch to extend the lead to 4-1.
Chatterton settled into the game nicely as the freshman right hander retired nine of the next 11 batters he faced with six strikeouts after allowing the leadoff home run. The Killen, Alabama, native struck out the side in the third and didn’t allow his next hit until there was one out in the fourth inning. After the one-out single, he proceeded to strikeout the next two batters to rack up his seventh and eighth strikeouts of the game.
The Tigers added another two-out run to extend their lead to 5-1 in the top of the fifth. Fralick delivered his second two-out single of the game to score McMurray from second, marking the senior first baseman’s third run of the game.
Back out for his last inning of work, Chatterton disposed of Baylor in order in the fifth and ultimately faced just two batters over the minimum after allowing the leadoff home run.
With fellow freshman Jackson Sanders on in relief of Chatterton, Baylor put two aboard with two outs in the seventh. However, Sanders buckled down and induced a groundout to short to end the inning unscathed.
With Auburn leading 5-1, Baylor nearly escaped a jam with two on and nobody out with a double play ball, but Belyeu got off a big swing to bolster the lead with a two-run home run. Facing a full count, he hooked a breaking ball inside the foul pole in right field for his second home run of the season.
Dylan Watts entered in relief to start the eighth, and Baylor answered with a two-run home run of its own to make it a 7-3 game. The Bears almost went back-to-back, but Bristol Carter deflected a home run back into the park with his glove and made a nice relay throw the get the runner sliding past third base.
Ryan Hetzler made his second appearance of the weekend in the ninth inning, and the Bears added an unearned run on a sacrifice fly to make it a three-run game. However, Hetzler induced a groundout to third to end the game with the potential tying run in the on-deck circle.
(Press Release from Auburn Athletics)
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